July 2012
110 posts
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The case for regulation of hyperlocal media «... →
Tags DemSoc, J-Lab, Judith Townend, Knight Foundation, legal, Leveson, media law, media regulation, Meeja Law, Mike Rawlins, NUJ, PCC, Philip John, regulation, Will Perrin This is an extract from a thinkpiece I authored recently – “Hey! Regulator! Leave those Hyperlocals alone!” – which was published by The Democratic Society as part of a wider report on Media Regulation & Democracy. The...
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Let’s talk about hyperlocal journalism « →
A new post over at Poynter this morning is discussing hyperlocal journalism, and the issues of one site in particular, Journatic. Before getting into the meat of the discussion, let’s consider hyperlocal journalism for a moment. In many ways, I’d like to consider the work we’re doing at the Reformer newsroom hyperlocal, but I know it doesn’t quiet meet the definition. In...
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Use lists, TweetDeck, HootSuite, saved searches,... →
I love the variety and serendipity of Twitter’s timeline. Whenever I check my timeline, I see the news, commentary, humor and complaints of the moment from the nearly 2,500 people that I follow. But the variety and serendipity that I love can quickly become the chaos that makes Twitter confusing and time-consuming — and thus useless — to a busy beat reporter.
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Clicks-Driven Journalism? Not for Community... →
We’ve talked in some earlier posts about the cutbacks at The Times-Picayune (TP) in New Orleans, the local reaction, and what it may mean for the publishing industry and the future of news reporting as a whole. While this week’s news that the TP’s award-winning Katrina reporter Mark Schleifstein is staying with the paper after the restructuring is encouraging, the paper’s fate still remains...
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Journalist builds The Reddit Edit as simplified... →
A freelance journalist has created an edited The Reddit Edit, which pulls in top content posted on Reddit that can act as a source of feature ideas for journalists. Reddit, the social news platform where users submit content and vote it up or down, has been used by journalists since its launch in 2005. Last week it gained particular attention from Nieman Journalism Lab, Time and other outlets in...
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The Tyee – Huffington Post's Ever Growing Canadian... →
Home to its very first international edition as well as a French language edition in Québec, this fall The Huffington Post (HuffPo) is set to launch two new regional editions, HuffPo Alberta and HuffPo B.C.
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Hashtags help journalists find relevant tweets and... →
Hashtags help journalists find people tweeting about topics they are covering. They also help people who are interested in the topics you cover find your tweets. My second #twutorial post on Twitter techniques explained how to use lists, saved searches and alerts to help you organize the chaos of Twitter. Hashtags also help organize Twitter.
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Citizen Journalism, a Conservative Movement... →
I can’t ignore this problem any more and too many are saying this is a real problem. Social media has become a problem in the Tea Party, a Big problem that is turning away many, time constraints, understanding how to use this new media, human nature with some talk more then they should, side arguments with a thread a mile long, intentional sabotage and much more are contributing factors. This is...
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Why social media roles in newsrooms shouldn’t just... →
Social media has opened a new door of career opportunities for media professionals, many of which have been snapped up by tech-savvy young journalists. Equipped with the speed, skills and determination that keeping up with the social Web demands, these younger journalists are great candidates for helping news organizations connect with their online audiences. What’s more is their inherent...
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Media Companies Struggle to Find Sweet Spot in... →
Some of the largest, most influential newspapers and media companies in the country have tried it: The New York Times. The Washington Post. The Chicago Tribune. Gannett. AOL. None has succeeded. Yet.
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A new Patch? : CJR →
At AOL’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Tim Armstrong hinted that changes are afoot for Patch, the hyperlocal news venture he dreamed up and then purchased in 2009, once he ascended to AOL’s top spot. The new product, he said:
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Is Reddit the future of news or the present? |... →
pparently, the future of news is not conferences about the future of news. The future of news is debates about Reddit. The flashpoint for this round was Michael Barthel’s take on Mathew Ingram’s piece about how people on Reddit covered the Colorado theater shootings. Citizen journalism such as what Redditors practiced, Barthel writes, is remarkably similar to the traditional type:
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Online News Subscriptions Might Actually Be... →
Online journalism may finally be starting prove itself, as two of the most prominent old school news organizations reached major subscription milestones. The New York Times and the Financial Times each announced big declines in overall revenue this week, as the media advertising business continues to struggle. However, on the bright side, paid subscriptions to The Times’ website continue to...
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How journalists can do a better job of correcting... →
Earlier this month I was in London to participate in the news:rewired journalism conference put on by Journalism.co.uk. My panel was about rumors, verification and corrections, and I was there to help provide some suggestions for handling corrections in the networked world. The three other speakers on the panel each tackled different aspects of verification. I encourage you to look over their...
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How BuzzFeed wants to reinvent wire stories for... →
The wire story is an atomic element of news: It’s the basic material upon which more journalism can be built. But wire stories, as a compact unit for getting out the basics of an updating story, are also a commodity. Thanks to the speed of information and the glut of channels we can access it on, it’s not uncommon to get flooded with the same story when major news breaks. If you were on Twitter or...
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Beverly Macy: How Real-Time Social Media Is Giving... →
A brave new mash-up of traditional news and the real-time stream is emerging that puts social media front and center in the news business ecosystem. From the horror of the Aurora shootings, to the minutiae of Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital dealings, to the whereabouts of Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine, the value chain of the news stream has radically changed.
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3 reasons hyperlocal works - Other Views -... →
Has Adams’ formula shielded this community newspaper against declining newspaper circulation? Not long ago, I tried to answer those questions for Grassroots Editor, a publication for community journalism, using a combination of content analysis and focus group interviews. The findings: Adams’ approach succeeds because of three elements, which I call the Media Triad.
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The future of news: Kicking off a journalism... →
As I left college with a dual degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of New Hampshire in 2009, I embarked on what some saw as a virtually hopeless mission to carve out my own little niche in the news world. I kid you not when I say people openly chuckled at my hard-earned diploma, some even offering me a snarky “Good luck with that” as they wished me well. Understandably...
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Hyperlocal scoops by journalism students | Media |... →
My item just now on a coming masterclass about investigative journalism reminds me that I forgot last week to mention an example of what can be achieved by young journalists who set their minds to probing a single area. Twelve students from City University London were tasked by their tutor, Rosie Waterhouse, to take a close look at happenings in the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
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Hyperlocal Voices: Richard Gurner, Caerphilly... →
For the fourth in our new series of Hyperlocal Voices we head back to Wales. Launched by Richard Gurner in July 2009, the Caerphilly Observer acts as a local news and information website for Caerphilly County Borough. The site is one of a small, but growing, number of financially viable hyperlocal websites. Richard, who remains the Editor of the site, told Damian Radcliffe a little bit about his...
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Book "Trust Me, I'm Lying" shows questionable... →
Is the model for online journalism fundamentally broken? That’s the argument made in “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator” by Ryan Holiday, released last Thursday. Holiday, who has worked as a media consultant for controversial author Tucker Max and American Apparel, is difficult to label because of his wide variety of experiences. Holiday is also a...
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Lessons to learn from the Journatic fakery scandal... →
Journatic, a US company formed to provide community news to large newspapers, was exposed earlier this month for using fake bylines on its stories. The stories were often written by freelance journalists located outside the US and, once the scandal was discovered, several papers dropped the service.
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Has the internet hurt newspapers? →
hat is a question that I get a lot. Frequently it is not even a question. People will say something along the lines of, “Wow, you guys must really be reeling from all the business you’re losing to the internet.” Sometimes they’ll just say, “Wow, sorry you’re in the newspaper business.” I usually just look at them, smile a bit and then explain that yes,...
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Scarborough shootings highlight new role of social... →
Hours before the Star reported the names of the two victims killed early Tuesday when they were caught in the crossfire of the worst shooting spree in Toronto history, their identities were publicly known within social media. Even before police confirmed the identity of Shyanne Charles, 14, who died in the block party shooting, dozens of her friends in her Scarborough neighbourhood shared their...
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James Holmes Facebook mistaken identity: Why... →
The Internet has trained us to assume that the intimate details of people’s lives must be out there on the Web somewhere, just waiting for us to enter the right Google search term or trawl the right social media platform. News of the massacre at the Batman screening in Aurora, Colo., this morning sent a thousand journalists (and “citizen journalists”) to their browsers, racing to be the first to...
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Theater-shooting reports by ABC, social media... →
Digital First Media announced yesterday (19 July) that it was creating a new curation team within the media group’s central news operation, tasked with hunting out content from across the web that may be of interest to the audience of the titles it owns. The team was due to start work on Monday 30 July but following the shooting in Colorado in the early hours of this morning, a...
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Digital First Media assembles curation team ahead... →
Digital First Media announced yesterday (19 July) that it was creating a new curation team within the media group’s central news operation, tasked with hunting out content from across the web that may be of interest to the audience of the titles it owns. The team was due to start work on Monday 30 July but following the shooting in Colorado in the early hours of this morning, a...
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New, old media helped tell story of Aurora... →
The Aurora shootings came to world attention thanks to an incredible interplay between “citizen journalists” - people, many of them teens, who were there, on the spot, mobile phones poised - and established media, which brought the story in its fullness to the world. Aurora resident Shantyl Toledo took a mobile-phone video of the shock and panic at the scene - bystanders screaming and...
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Social media becomes outlet after deadly spree |... →
WASHINGTON—News of Friday’s horrific shooting spree in a US movie theater spread quickly on social media, and video and pictures from the scene spread around the world within minutes of the deadly attack. Within minutes, some on the scene began tweeting about the attack. Isaac J Ramos wrote: “There was a shooting at century 16 aurora about 30 minutes into the movie. Its crazy.”
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Tim Knight: Watching the Watchdog: Will Microsoft... →
Once upon a time when the world was young and had hope, and global warming, the one per cent and social media hadn’t yet been invented, there truly was a golden age for TV news in North America. For me, it was in the sixties when I left the Congo after three years of wars and joined ABC News in New York. But no, ABC News (known at the time as the Almost Broadcasting Company) wasn’t...
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Aurora tragedy played out in social media - SFGate →
Jessica Ghawi, a budding sportscaster in the Denver area, teased her friend for not attending the Thursday night premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises.” “Psh. Loser!” she wrote at 10:33 p.m. on Twitter. “Which is why you’re tweeting now and not at the movie?” responded her friend, Jesse Spector. “MOVIE DOESN’T START FOR 20 MINUTES,” Ghawi...
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Reactions to the Aurora shooting: the wrong, the... →
It doesn’t take long for news to travel about a tragedy like Friday’s midnight shooting at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, CO, anymore. But the pressure for outlets to keep pace with social media and find new angles on the story when updates aren’t readily available has resulted in reactive journalism ranging from the curious to the entirely inappropriate.
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Heartbreaking Aurora tragedy unfolds on social... →
The tweets start with the normal excitement of movie goers anticipating the midnight showing of a new blockbuster, “The Dark Knight Rises.” But the tenor of the messages quickly turns to horror.
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How Real-Time Social Networking Has Transformed... →
Residing in Germany, Steffen Konrath is the Editor-in-Chief for the popular blog, NextLevelOfNews. He is also the Founder of Liquid Newsroom, a real-time news curator and ultra-fast publishing platform. Steffen has a reputation for his research on the future of journalism and media. Wish over 70,000 Twitter followers, he is sure to capture interesting and insightful information regarding...
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Why journalists can't predict the future of news |... →
That the news business is on shaky ground is obvious, how to fix it is much less clear. As newspapers close, news radio stations play peek-a-boo and the line of paywalls gets longer, cantankerous journo-observer Alan D. Mutter, a former editor and columnist who now works as a media consultant, makes a great point about why people who write for a living are making few contributions to...
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How hyperlocal sites handle ‘micro-news’ in their... →
We’ve become familiar with the way Journatic — and the news organizations that outsource to it — are gathering and publishing local “micro-news” like school lunch menus, death notices, high school sports scores and real estate transactions. But we wondered: How else is this information being compiled?
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Hyperlocal newspapers: The kitten press | The... →
WHEN the Tenby Observer, the local paper of a small Welsh fishing town, relaunched in 1978, it declared itself no longer interested in the goings-on of nearby Carmarthen and Haverfordwest. Henceforth it would report only on Tenby. The first edition carried a front-page story about thefts from a local caravan site (an “alarm clock, assorted foodstuffs and two clothes brushes”). The paper’s new...
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Media Outsourcing and Journatic: Hate the Player,... →
There has been a debate raging in the media lately over the practices of a journalism-outsourcing startup called Journatic, which used to provide hyperlocal news content to such papers as the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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YouTube adds face blurring as citizen journalist... →
YouTube has announced the launch of face blurring, allowing citizen journalists or anyone who wants to protect the anonymity of children to obscure faces.
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Cardiff University sets up centre of excellence... →
A centre of excellence for hyperlocal websites is set to be officially launched at Cardiff University in September. The community journalism centre aims to provide a link between hyperlocal news sites across Wales, giving them training and advice in areas such as media law and digital technology.
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Twitter, Reddit and the newsroom of the future —... →
By now, many people are becoming used to Twitter as a source of breaking news, whether it’s a report about the death of Osama bin Laden or details about the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt. But it’s still fascinating to come across new examples of how the real-time information network can be used to report on a breaking news story, whether by professional journalists or those committing what Andy...
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Online Journalism: a Sausage Factory [Infographic] →
Many leading publishers are trying to maintain profit margins online by lowering quality using various forms of automation & outsourcing. Great infographic
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Leveson inquiry: Huffington Post is 'not the... →
The Huffington Post and other blog sites do not herald the future of journalism as they do not fund complex original reporting such as the MPs expenses or WikiLeaks scandals, the Leveson inquiry heard on Tuesday.
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Prominent Digital Newspaper May Fold After 18... →
iPad-centric newspaper that was supposed to revolutionize the digital news business. Murdoch himself described the paper as “unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important.” It was also the first app to use Apple’s...
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Rive-Sud and Rive-Nord — Hyperlocal journalism for... →
Montreal’s north and south shores have witnessed a major population boom in recent years. Nearly two million people now live in these suburbs, and growth shows no signs of slowing down. Off-Island residents want to experience their communities to the fullest, understand local issues and have a personalized relationship with the news that matters to them.
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Reflections of a Newsosaur: Why ‘future of... →
After recently attending the latest in the never-ending series of “future of journalism” conferences, I finally realized why they all fail: They don’t include the right people. While these well-intended yakfests are rich in whining and dining ops, journo-futuramas generate few practical or actionable ideas because they lack the perspectives of four key constituencies:
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Standards, ethics and changes to TribLocal -... →
Vince Casanova, president of the Chicago Tribune Media Group, explained in a note to readers Friday night that we have indefinitely suspended the use of Journatic content because of serious ethical issues involving some stories supplied to TribLocal.
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Pew study: More are watching, creating news via... →
Cute kitty viral videos: your 15 minutes of fame are up. YouTube is no longer just the repository of the cute, the weird, the shocking — although it is still that — but a major platform for viewing news, from raw video of massacres in Syria to an analysis of Mitt Romney’s campaign. Read more:...
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New Media Toolkit →
New tools are emerging every day for telling stories, engaging audiences and monitoring online impact. How can nonprofits and ethnic and community news organizations use these tools to their advantage? How can beginners sort through the overwhelming volume of all the different available technologies? And how can those wishing to improve their digital skills find the best resources? The...
