Should they publish or not? A Journalism roundup follows

Financial Times pulls Amnesty Vs. Shell ad

The Guardian reports that The Financial Times made a last-minute decision not to publish this ad, placed by Amnesty International:

According to the article, the paper left it until the last possible moment to pull the hard-hitting ad, which was due to appear today to coincide with Shell?s annual meeting in London.

Wikinews investigates: Advertisements disguised as news articles trick unknowing users out of money, credit card information

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Internet has already brought great things to the world, but has also brought spam, phishing, scamming, etc. We all have seen them across the Internet. They promise money, weight loss, or other things a person may strive for, but they usually amount to only a lighter pocket. Online advertising has become something that the increasingly Internet-reliant society has become used to, as well as more aware of. As this is true, online ads have become more intricate and deceptive in recent years.

Toronto-based open source site aims to reinvent online journalism

OpenFile, a Toronto based news site, is attempting to reinvent the online news industry through open source citizen journalism, PBS reports.

Online news readership surges 300% in UK

Press Gazette reports that the amount of time spent reading news online has risen from seven million hours per months to twenty-two million hours (or roughly thirty-minutes per person) a month over the last three years.  The data was compiled by the UK Online Measurement Company based on tracking a sample of 40,000 internet users throughout the UK.
The complete UKOM breakdown of time spent online ranked by proportion of the total (With percentage change over last three years):

Bloomberg’s Winkle criticizes his staff’s inaccurate tweets

In the last year, Twitter has become a go-to social network for journalists either looking to research stories or ways to distribute their content online. News organizations, like Newsweek and Sky News, have amply incorporated tweets into their newsrooms and news stories, and last month, we learned that the NYT stories get tweeted at a remarkable rate of once every 4 seconds.

5 Innovative Websites That Could Reshape the News

from Mashable! by Samuel Axon

Poynter Online highlights importance of smart phones for reporting

The importance of smart phones for journalists in the modern world cant be underestimated. Ed Medina, writing for Poynter Online, recently explained how his smart phone came in handy when he found himself in the middle of a story as it was breaking.   While cycling to work one day Medina “stumbled into a real news story” related to an FBI bust related to failed Times Square bombings which later “dominated national news.” Medina provides an account of all the ways in which his smart phone helped him communicate with his news team in order to capture the story.

User generated content and public service broadcasting, Claire Wardle

Between summer 2007 and 2008, I led a knowledge exchange research project, examining the use of user-generated content at the BBC. The research was co-funded by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the objectives were to understand: how user-generated content was being used across BBC news; who submitted user-generated content and their motivations; and the barriers for those that did not submit content. The final report can be found here, but in this post, I want to explore the public service dimensions of user-generated content and how the rise of social media fits into the equation.

Four journalists banned from Gitmo coverage appeal ban

Four journalists who have been banned from covering Military Commissions in Guantanamo Bay for publishing the name of an interrogator are appealing the Pentagon order on grounds that their ban was “illegal and unconstitutional,” reports McClatchyDC.

German publishers offer lessons for U.S. newspaper industry

U.S. publishers have come under fire in a report on the state of the newspaper industry by the German Newspaper Publishers’ Association, according to the New York Times.

USA: Tough Reviews on Huffington Post’s Birthday

from Global Voices Online by Solana Larsen