News of the World Whistleblower Found Dead
from Mashable! by Todd Wasserman
A former News of the World reporter who connected former NOTW editor Andy Coulson to phone hacking by his staff has been found dead.
How Journalists Are Using Facebook to Share the News
from Mashable! by Lauren Drell
Shirky: Cheap, free, chaotic news is better than all-the-same news businesses
from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Clay Shirky is getting ready to teach NYU’s Journalism School undergrads, and he’s posted “Why We Need the New News Environment to be Chaotic,” a call-to-arms to produce a wide variety of journalisms that — unlike the newspaper business of yore — has a wide variety of business models that don’t all fail together when technology changes some of the facts on the ground.
Metrics for civic impacts of journalism
from …My heart’s in Accra by Ethan
How do news organizations measure impact?
That?s the question I found myself talking with Phil Bronstein of the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week. He?d gotten in touch to talk about what tools are available to help newspaper editors track audience and reach for their stories, hoping that I?d have some insights on ?cutting edge? techniques to track the reach and impact of news stories posted online. We talked a bit about the challenges of social media tracking after the demise of Technorati, the possible benefits of bit.ly-type analytics, questions of influence and reach raised by Klout and similar systems. All well and good, but measuring how many people read a story is something any web administrator should be able to do. Audience doesn?t necessarily equal impact.
Eat Me: the Media Environment as Food Web
from The Meta-Activism Project by Mary C Joyce
In the wake of the Arab Spring, there are few dichotomies left in mass media. Producer and Consumer? Dead. Blogs started the battle years ago, when the ?former audience? began to produce their own content. Now the former audience creates content not only for one another but also for broadcast media. Where would the 24-hour news cycle be without YoutTube videos and Twitter sources?
Intersect provides opportunity for real-time reporting
from Editors Weblog – all postings by Florence Pichon
Integrating social media into reporting adds value for readers: the story is more relevant, and it also unfolds in real-time. With available online tools, reporters can map stories, interact with readers, and attract more attention.
How Important Are Writing Skills for Modern Journalists?
from MediaShift
When I ask my university journalism students why exactly they want to be journalists, a majority tell me it’s because they “like to write.”
Considering most of them are in their 20s and grew up with the Internet, this response always surprises me. With a seemingly endless supply of emerging technology and digital storytelling tools at their fingertips, why pursue journalism exclusively for love of the written word?
Murdochgate and the news: we need to reframe media and the public interest, Natalie Fenton
from open Democracy News Analysis – by Natalie Fenton
‘Murdochgate’ is caused by an underlying crisis in the media and the production of news
You can arrest Andy Coulson, you can sack two hundred journalists and take the News of the World off the face of the earth but the problem won?t go away. News is in crisis, but believing that it is a crisis stemming from the lies, deceitfulness and illegality of hacking is misplaced.
Understanding the roots of the crisis may need political analysis the kind Gerry Hassan provides; it may point to fascinating contradictions in conservatism itself as Will Davies argues; it may in part be due to the baleful responsibility of Rupert Murdoch and his son as Anthony Barnett asserts, but it also requires a critical interrogation of the terms on which newspapers in the UK operate.
The rise and fall of a global media baron?
from AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)
As News of the World newspaper shuts down, analysts speculate on the future of its billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch.
News organisations tackle employees’ use of social media
from Editors Weblog – all postings by Teemu Henriksson
It is a common wisdom by now that any journalist needs to have an active presence in social media. But explicitly defining that presence has proved difficult: on the one hand, it can be argued that journalists should be able to express their opinions freely in social media, for example, without having to consider if they correspond with their employer’s views; on the other,
social media can be seen as another form of publishing, and journalists are representatives of their media companies when they post.
Reuters appoints social media editor
from Editors Weblog – all postings by Teemu Henriksson
Reuters is stepping up its social media efforts: the news agency named Anthony De Rosa as its new social media editor yesterday. De Rosa is currently a product manager and technologist at Reuters. Poynter published the memo announcing De Rosa’s appointment.
U.S. community press left behind in digital engagement?
from Editors Weblog – all postings by Katherine Travers
The local daily paper was once at the heart of every community; now it seems that the smallest publications are most vulnerable in this time of change and uncertainty within the media. So, how does your average local daily keep up nowadays? The answer, according to the findings of a study conducted by Joy Mayer, a fellow of the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), seems to be community engagement.
Best practices for engaging users on Facebook
BBC releases updated guidelines for journalists’ social media use
from Editors Weblog – all postings by Teemu Henriksson
Major news organisations have become to embrace social media as part of their operations, acknowledging its potential as both a newsgathering tool and news outlet. But more and more news organisations are also setting boundaries for the use of social media, hoping in this way to prevent any missteps that could undermine their staffers’ – or worse, the organisation’s – reputation.
After Murdoch, Anthony Barnett
from open Democracy News Analysis – by Anthony Barnett
A potentially awesome shift in the UK?s power structure is taking place if the role and influence of Murdoch?s newspapers is really undermined. This is because the mess that Jeremy Hunt wishes to see sorted out is the very fusion of politicians, journalists and media owners that govern us – the political class.
Online papers introduce high and low culture sections
from Editors Weblog – all postings by Florence Pichon
Celebrity news gets high page view impact. High culture wins credibility. Some newspapers deliver one in order to fund the other, and online news sources are on the same track. The Huffington Post announced that it is expanding in both domains, while USA Today is taking on The New York Times with the launch a book site earlier this week.