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The two papers returned very similar results. In four weeks, Sussex Express produced an average of 4.15% of council news in its news pages and The Argus, an average of 4.46% over five days.
links for 2009-11-10
November 10, 2009 by sarahhartleylinks for 2009-11-09
November 9, 2009 by sarahhartley-
Students on the MA Online Journalism have been putting their knowledge to the test with a new website aimed at providing news around Birmingham's city centre area.
The site – Hashbrum.co.uk uses an innovative design created by Alex Gamela that combines a map of Birmingham with a slideshow of multimedia material as ways to navigate to articles.
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Your Blog is the most important part of your Social Media strategy. If you don’t already have a Blog start one today. It’s that important.
links for 2009-11-07
November 7, 2009 by sarahhartley-
We really are about process. Journalism and news is a process that doesn’t begin and that doesn’t end. When you think like that, I think you open up your world to collaboration. One of the lessons from Google is that it always puts out new products as a beta. And it says: “This is unfinished, it’s imperfect, help us finish it!”
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Where will traditional newsrooms be in 18 months? If they’re continuing to bury their collective heads in the sand, the future will be bleaker than the last 18 months. And God knows, that’s been bad enough for 1000’s of journalists in the UK already.
links for 2009-11-06
November 6, 2009 by sarahhartley-
7. Money sitting in the council’s bank from planning applications
When I used to cover local government, I always thought it seemed a bit like blackmail for a council to grant planning permission but only if a developer handed over cash for public improvements. Such a deal is know as a Section 106 agreement (catchy, eh?) and while councils have to discuss in public at meetings about such deals being made, they don’t have to announce when the money’s spent. So the Worcester News used FOI to find out how much was in the Section 106 pot at Worcestershire County Council. Answer: £2.7million. Some questions to be answered there, it seems.
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It’s a big change in mentality for some journalists. I’ve been to several events and meetings recently where hacks have insisted people will have to pay for news “because journalists have to eat”.
This is upside-down thinking. People don’t buy iPhones because Steve Jobs needs to eat. They buy them because they are an innovative product which satisfies a demand people are willing to pay for.
And so it must be if journalists are to be entrepreneurs.
links for 2009-11-05
November 5, 2009 by sarahhartley-
But, on an average day, none of them match the frequency of output the BBC had proposed – nine extra short news, sport and weather reports for each of its 65 regions.
Grappling with debt, lower revenues and real long-term threats to their survival, it’s understandable that publishers’ new media investment in 2009 hasn’t exactly matched previous years. But consumers that missed out on the video news promised by the BBC have a right to ask: where is the video news the newspaper industry promised?
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Blogging helps because it enables you to write and express your ideas. My goal is to write on my blog everyday about something either relevant to journalism, something going on in my life, college – anything that can help me express myself. I feel this is a good outlet for expressing my views and opinions.
PCSOs recruited to newspaper hyperlocal initiative
November 5, 2009 by sarahhartleyBrighton’s Argus is to tap into the city’s network of PCSOs to provide content for its network of hyperlocal websites – blogging their beat you could say.
Web editor Jo Wadsworth told me that the officers will be working alongside students that have also been recruited to cover stories for the 25 sites.
After training from Jo, the community police officers will be able to upload their appeals and news directly to the sites and she’s also hoping they’ll develop into forums similar to one currently running in Preston Park.
As reported in the Press Gazette this morning, the newspaper has been working with the training organisation Journalist Works, activity which has been going on for over a year with the students pitching in material to the websites for the past six months.
The contributions are unpaid and are in many ways treated as an extension of the sort of work experience commonly on offer across local newspapers, the difference being that the blogs allow those participating a greater sense of ownership of the project.
To that end, the bloggers will receive traffic stats and other analytics plus training seminars on practical skills and going offline with social events is in the pipeline for next year.
The content expected will largely be text and pictures although the students are already creating weekly video vox pops (the latest here) and moving activity into social networks including Twitter and Facebook.
links for 2009-11-04
November 4, 2009 by sarahhartley-
"Climate Pulse tracks a wide range of source for information, comment and content about the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP15). It's different from mere aggregation services because there is an editorial layer and a social layer. The editorial layer allows curators to highlight specific pieces of content. The Social layer gets users involved in tagging and categorising content. In the near future, you'll even be able to take away a widget containing the flow from Climate Pulse – a widget that lets your friends, contacts or audience to not only consume but to contribute their own content, straight from your site, back into that flow."
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They are restless, isolated, frustrated, and unsatisfied. They are getting more support and recognition for their work externally than they do within their own organizations. They are looking for really rewarding challenges and an environment where they can do innovative and ground-breaking work. They are in organizations that still view them as their social media or community outpost but they are not ready to think about social media or community as a business strategy that incorporates more of the organization – effectively leaving them in the desert with no water.
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Media people are using Twitter as an instrument for sharing and crowdsourcing, for networking and live-reporting. A journalist with a popular blog or social media presence can only be positive for the publication’s brand.
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Journalists from across the Arab world, North America and Europe are invited to participate in an online training course entitled “Freedom of expression in the digital age,” which will be held December 4, 2009 to January 22, 2010. Deadline to apply: November 27.
During the five-week course, participants will develop skills in producing multimedia content, including writing and blogging for the Web. They will also learn to manage online communities that attract constructive, responsible dialogue. Through an exploration of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, participants will learn how social networking is being used in news coverage and how journalists can best use citizen-produced content in ways that promote intercultural understanding.
The course will be held in both English and Arabic to allow for dialogue between journalists from different backgrounds.
links for 2009-11-03
November 3, 2009 by sarahhartley-
First of all, there's nothing ipso facto shocking about a decline in patronage of 10 percent in six months. Many political blogs and cable news shows have seen their audiences fall by much more than 10 percent since the feverish fall of 2008.
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Well. There are two ways of considering such move. One is to say: Great, community members take over the coverage that matters to them, they use all available tools: social network, live blogging, Flip-camera produced videos, to give local stuff the exposure it needs.
Another view is this: Doing local journalism is as complicated as any other kind of reporting. Poring over local financial records requires the same amount of time, dedication and expertise as digging into a national political party’s finances. Yes, citizen-like journalists will do fine reporting on “lighter” issues such as the state of schools or of the sewage system. But uncovering and preventing what really matters, such as the misuse of public funding, rigged bidding procedures for large projects and so on is a very different story.




