Nicolas Kayser-Bril raises concerns that government or industry sponsored news outlets and stories will gain increasing coverage, as media organisations face swingeing cutbacks and foreign bureaux are closed.
He’s so concerned, in fact, that he’s built an app based on Google News API. Use it to search for a topic and it’ll suggest the share of articles (from a selection of 60) paid for in this way.
You’d be forgiven for confusing it with CNN’s iReport, similar name, similar project – US broadcaster Fox has expanded its citizen journalism initiative, uReport, onto MySpace [though can’t seem to find a working link yet].
According to a press release announcing the launch:
“Members of the MySpace uReport community can become ‘uReporters’ by uploading video and photos tagged by specific news categories, including USA, World, Entertainment and Politics. This content could be featured in relevant programming on FOX News Channel and foxnews.com, with FOX News maintaining editorial control of the MySpace page.”
The social network has already dabbled in some user-generated news coverage, having teamed up with MSNBC for US election coverage.
Much has been made of Barack Obama’s use of new media to mobilise voters and generate microdonations to support his presidential campaign.
Speaking at today’s Digital News Affairs 2009 (DNA) Jodi Williams, press lead for the Obama Campaign, explained the team’s use of the internet as a tool to connect people ‘who otherwise wouldn’t have been connected’.
This meant building a presence for Obama on social networks, coordinating online donation schemes and collecting information on potential voters so that directions to polling stations and offers of transport could be made via text on voting day.
Many of the techniques could be applied to Europe for candidates in the forthcoming European Parliament elections, particularly because of deeper broadband presentation, added Williams.
Really? Could Obama’s campaign have been as successful without that key component – the candidate himself. Is there anyone in European politics who inspires the same debate/feeling/mass participation?
Fortunately Stephen Clark, representing the European Parliament on the panel, conceded this point:
“It can’t be denied that it [Obama’s campaign] was about candidate and political situation at that time.
“It’s very difficult to find a political figure known across Europe. In a parliamentary system perhaps the issues are the way to go.”
Under a new US policy, the Pentagon is to allow photos of caskets at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, if familial consent is given. The practice was previously banned by President Bush in 1991.
Departments, including Culture, Media & Sport, are to receive digital media training, including sessions on user-generated content, social networking and search.
While reviewing the best online coverage of election day, CNN’s press office dropped us a line about the ‘magic board’ – a map of the states which will be used by presenter John King to show the results and forecasts as they come in.
For anyone who loves/loathes a good swing-o-meter, here’s Saturday Night Live’s take on it:
For those that have been under a rock/on Mars for the last year, the next President of the United States will be decided tonight, giving news organisations another opportunity to flaunt their interactive, live reporting and user-generated wares as the votes unfold.
We’ve already covered Sky News’ election coverage and BBC News’ live online plans, but here’s our round-up of some of the best projects out there – open up twenty browser tabs, sit back and enjoy:
That’s not enough, I hear you cry. You want more? Well, over at paidContent:UK, Robert Andrews has wrapped up the online coverage from the UK’s newspapers, while Online Journalism Blog chieftain Paul Bradshaw has an extensive list of online activities.
This is only the tip of the iceberg – any other great coverage, tools or websites that need a mention, let us know below.
According to a press release from the Associated Press (AP), the agency will embark on its first continuous, live video news coverage on US election night, November 4.
The Big Issue: Election Results stream will feature a host of AP reports and will be streamed from 7pm (EST) on the agency’s online video network.
The stream will include views from 10 non-journalists, representing the electorate, who have been selected from AP’s collaboration with Yahoo to track the changing attitudes of 2,000 American voters during the presidential campaigns.
“We recognize that this is a once in a quarter century election,” said Michael Oreskes, AP managing editor for US News.
“Through the course of the year we have dug deeply into the dynamics of race and gender and economic fears that are suffusing the electorate. Our pre-election AP-Yahoo! News poll assessing the impact of racial attitudes on the electorate is being cited as the prime source on the issue this year. We plan to carry this work into our preparations for election night.”
YouTube is teaming up with the US’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to broadcast user-generated clips of video from around polling stations on election day.
In the Beet.tv interview below, Steve Grove, head of news and politics at the site, said Video Your Vote will compile the largest video library in history of what takes place in the election on November 4.
Thomson Reuters went all out this morning in its coverage of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s speech at the company’s London office.
First off the organisation’s own coverage: the Newsmaker event was twittered by Reuters journalist Mark Jones, whose updates were fed into a special microsite.
There was also video of the PM’s announcement originally livestreamed on Reuters’ website – including a handy dropdown menu that lets you skip through the clip to different key moments.
A full transcript and text article of the speech have also been published on the site.
But in addition to Reuters’ own reporting on the event was live footage streamed using mobile phones and hosting service Qik by social media bloggers Documentally and Sizemore.
“With Gordon Brown due to start talking on the present economic crisis what can two beardy blokes with a few laptops and small cameras possible hope to add?
“Well nothing directly on what is about to be said. I have as much interest in current politics as I did in marketing movies. I’m here with Christian [Documentally] to start conversations around the NewsMaker event that are currently not part of Reuter’s remit,” wrote Mike Atherton aka Sizemore in a blog post.
Below is Documentally’s mobile video of the Newsmaker:
The pair also used social media tools such as online site Phreadz, which builds multimedia forums around content submitted by users, to generate discussion around Brown’s speech.
“I sincerely hope that following today the idea of getting these events discussed on social media platforms such as Twitter, Seesmic and Phreadz becomes a natural part of the news media’s roadmap,” added Atherton.