Tag Archives: media

Online Journalism Scandinavia: Mecom’s Danish arm will cut costs with open-source CMS

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Mecom-owned Berlingske Media, Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper publisher, has decided to ditch its costly online publishing system for open-source software Drupal.

As Journalism.co.uk reported earlier this year, Berlingske Media already runs some of its sites on Drupal – a free content management system (CMS).

After a long period of deliberation, the Danish division of Mecom, the ailing pan-European media group headed by former Mirror-boss David Montgomery, has decided to make Drupal its online publishing system of choice.

“It is no secret that economy means a lot to us, but if the system had been unstable and not user-friendly, the price would not have been decisive,” Berlingske’s CEO Lisbeth Knudesen told eJour (in Danish).

She particularly praised Drupal for being so much more flexible than traditional publishing platforms.

‘Accredited media’ not yet defined, Ministry of Justice tells Journalism.co.uk

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UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s proposals to ‘lift the veil,’ and open family courts to the media, bring with them a range of issues, as discussed by the Telegraph’s Joshua Rozenberg.

One of which is the question of what defines the category of ‘accredited media’? Will it include online-only publications, for example?

Journalism.co.uk rang the Ministry of Justice to find out what will constitute ‘accredited media’. A spokesperson said it is currently ‘being decided’ and will be announced ‘once rules are finally agreed’. “It is part of the decision making process,” he said.

What’s the time-frame? Journalism.co.uk asked. Along with other parts of the proposal, final rules will be established by April 2009, the ministry spokesperson said.

As Rozenberg commented, this is a significant part of the proposals. Rozenberg wrote:

” … Mr Straw does not seem to have given enough thought to what constitutes the modern media.

“If I decide to write about legal affairs on my own website, am I a freelance journalist who should be allowed access to the courts or a blogger who should not? And who is to decide?

“Mr Straw’s officials pointed out that press seats at criminal trials are allocated by court officials. But those denied such seats can usually attend as members of the public. That option would not be available here.

“Journalism is not a profession, in the sense of an occupation with controlled entry such as law or architecture. Anyone can call himself or herself a journalist. It is therefore essential that the final decision on who may attend the family courts as a journalist is one for the courts themselves, not officials.”

(Hat tip to Jon Slattery, who also flagged up the issues on his blog.)

Win a job in journalism! Yes, really. A whole real job up for grabs…

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Publish 2 has had the bright idea of a contest for journalists, with the much-coveted and very rare prize of… a whole, brand new, job in journalism (paid, and everything)!

Entrants need to promote themselves as ‘the future of journalism’.

“We believe journalism has a bright future, and we’re betting everything on that belief,” writes Publish2 CEO and co-founder Scott Karp on the Publish2 site.

The winner of the ‘I Am The Future Of Journalism’ Contest will bag a job with Publish2, a site and application developed to promote ‘link journalism’ in newsrooms, as reported by Journalism.co.uk in October.

The new recruit will join a team of two existing journalists and included in the offer is a $1,000 signing bonus.

Unsuccessful entrants will also receive a boost, writes Karp: Publish2 will promote them to ‘news organizations and media companies that are looking for journalists who are focused on the future and who want to help journalism evolve’.

Entries can be video, slide show, or written (or all three) but must address ‘why you believe you are the future of journalism’.

“I am the future of journalism because…”

And then it’s down to the entrant. Further information here. Publish2 users will rate the contest entries.

The contest is open to submissions until December 30, and entries can be rated up until January 9.

Mumbai online: the attacks reported live (updating)

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A look at where the news has unfolded. Please post additional links below. Journalism.co.uk will add in more links as they are spotted.

Washington-based blogger and social media expert, Gaurav Mishra talks to Journalism.co.uk in an interview published on the main page.

One of the few on-the-ground user-generated content examples, Vinu’s Flickr stream (screen grab above). Slide show below:

How it has been reported:

Photography:

  • Flickr users such as Vinu, have uploaded pictures from the scene (images: all rights reserved).
  • A Flickr search such as this one, brings up images from Mumbai, although many are reproduced from a few sources. People have also taken pictures of the television news coverage.
  • But before you re-publish your finds beware: an advanced search which filters pictures by copyright and only shows up images opened up under Creative Commons, limits the results.

Blogs:

Breaking news:

Social Media:

Microblogging:

Mapping:

Video:

  • The Google video seach is here. YouTube videos are mainly limited to broadcast footage, with one user even filming the TV reports, for those without access to live television coverage. YouTube videos seem to be all second-hand broadcasts from mainstream media.

Timelines:

  • Dipity timeline here:

Campaigns / Aid:

https://bmmagazine.co.uk/business/us-government-asks-max-polyakov-to-sell-firefly-shares-for-safety-concerns/

RMRF: Regional Media Research Forum in new web launch

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The regional media will now be able to share research into readership, marketing, advertising and digital courtesy of a new website from the Regional Media Research Forum (RMRF).

Announced at yesterday’s RMRF Insight, the site will allow regional publishers to search and share research plans and results to assist them with future surveys, data analysis and media planning.

The new launch is part of a rebranding process for the forum previously known as the Regional Newspaper Research Forum.

A design for the site has been approved, but www.rmrf.co.uk is not yet public.

Keep calm the NUJ says, with its new anti-stress campaign

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News reaches us that the NUJ’s new campaign, ‘Stressed Out’, will tackle stress in the industry. At a time of major cutbacks, the union is becoming more and more worried that journalists’ health and safety is at risk.

The NUJ is pressing employers to think about the stress levels induced by the working environment.

NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said in a statement, “It’s time for media companies to recognise that it’s unacceptable for them to preside over regimes which are literally making people sick. Employers must take responsibility for protecting the mental and physical wellbeing of their staff.

“All journalists understand how to work under pressure – it’s part of the job. But working under pressure is different from working under the constant stress that is now all too familiar to our members,” he said.

Full details of the campaign can be found here.

Survey showing that ‘trust in the UK’s national media is on the up’ actually shows nothing

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Do you trust the telephone more than the internet, might have been a more valid question than that asked by media company Metrica’s UKPulse survey this week, when it questioned respondents on what they thought were the most trustworthy forms of media.

According to their press release (to which there is no link on the Metrica site), the study asked 13,000 UK adults whether they trusted the internet more than newspapers.

So far so good – it’s an important question. But in the company’s analysis of the results, it compared the internet with news sites.

“The internet in general has gained four percentage points, with 34% of UK adults now saying they trust its content. News sites as a specific online media type though do fair [sic] a lot better with 54% – more than national newspapers!”

That’s like comparing the percentage of people who trust the printed pages of books, with the percentage of people who trust Bill Bryson. It’s simply not a useful comparison.

The internet is the publishing medium, and is not comparable to TV channels or newspapers, which are editorially directed. The internet is the technology by which material is reproduced (in some cases the same material as that appearing in newspapers). When people said they trusted television they weren’t talking about their television sets, rather the channels they watch.

By and large, news site content is the same as the content of newspapers, so it seems bizarre that people trust online news sites more. What is even more baffling, is that blogs fared worse than news sites for gaining people’s trust. But, these very news sites have blogs.

I need persuading that any kind of fruitful analysis can be gleaned from this rather badly thought out study. When someone comes up with relevant and comparable categories then this type of study would be extremely revealing.

For example, do people trust a well-known newspaper journalist’s blog more than an unknown blogger’s?

Furthermore, as Adrian Monck points out in the comments on Roy Greenslade’s blog:

“The problem with trust polling is that it says nothing about the reliability of the media, whilst giving the appearance of providing an answer…”

Greenslade himself asks us about the significance of the increase in trust in UK media, but I think the real question to be asked here is how to profitably analyse people’s trust in different types of online media.

Does anyone know of any good studies conducted on people’s trust in new media? Or how best to measure the media’s reliability?

Media safety website has a change of identity

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Media safety organisation, INSI, went live with its website  yesterday – www.newsafety.org –  with an all new look. It has actually had a complete change of identity too: INSI is now an org, not a co.

INSI first emerged five years ago, as the result of the concern at the growing global rate of casualties of journalists and their support staff.

With specialised news and features focusing on risk awareness, safety, health and training, they aim to provide advice and support for those reporting from areas of conflict, crime and corruption, natural disasters and disease.

The new website look is designed to make their resources easier to access by journalists around the world, with better video and audio.
INSI’s very keen to welcome feedback and suggestions for improvement: find their various contacts here.

Journalism in Africa: Kenyan radio stations criticised in human rights report

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Dennis Itumbi reports from Kenya for Journalism.co.uk on developments in the country’s media:

Three independent Kenyan radio stations have been named and shamed for fueling the post-election violence in the country last year in a human rights report.

The preliminary report ‘A Human Rights Account of Kenya’s Post-2007 Election Violence’, compiled by the government-funded but independent Kenya National Human Rights Commission, claims individual journalists and the radio stations incited and urged listeners to arm themselves and attack members of rival communities.

KASS FM, which broadcasts in the Kalenjin area, was accused by the report of ‘being highly biased and using inflammatory language in its broadcasts and programming.’

The report quotes one of its top journalists telling his audience in Swahili (a widely spoken dialect in East Africa)’ tokeni vita imetokea’, which loosely translates to ‘leave your houses, war has begun’. According to further notes in the report, the journalist went on to urge youths to ‘arm themselves’.

A preacher at the station – identified only as Rev Kosgey – is also named in the report for organizing a meeting to evict members of President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe from the Rift Valley region long before the elections.

Other stations mentioned include Inooro, owned by Royal Media Services – a high-flying independent media company, which owns the bulk of vernacular stations in the country, and religious broadcaster Radio Injili, based in Eldoret. Inooro was particularly blamed for organising revenge attacks in Kenya’s central province.

The report argued that the ‘media failed in the announcement of results, since they aired reports without a background context and historical voting patterns’.

The report comes at a time when the Kenyan media is sharply in focus over its role in the 2007 elections.

The pressure is so high that a commission has been set up to investigate the media’s coverage of the disputed presidential election results.