PCC wants to take podcast complaints

Posted by Martin Stabe on 5 November 2006 at 07:37
Tags: Ethics, Journalism, Podcasting, Press Complaints Commission, Society of Editors, Vodcasting, text, video

The Press Complaints Commission wants to accept complaints about podcasts found on newspaper’s web sites, reports Stephen Vass in the Sunday Herald.
The Sunday Herald report also suggests that convergence is proving a bit of a headache for PCC chairman Sir Christopher Meyer — while newpapers’ audio and video content appears to be covered by the PCC code, text on broadcasters’ websites is not.

Journalist or rubbish collector?

Posted by Martin Stabe on 23 October 2006 at 18:44
Tags: Awards, Croydon Advertiser, Gravesend Messenger, Journalism

Wicked whispers: Which of the judges of the EDF South East Media Awards did Ian Carter of the Croydon Advertiser once talk out of quitting journalism in favour of  a career as a refuse collector?

PS: The Gravesend Messenger took newspaper of the year.

1 comment

We Media: Where does citizen journalism emerge?

Posted by Martin Stabe on 4 May 2006 at 10:07
Tags: Blogs, Citizen journalism, Journalism, Reuters, We Media

Speaking on a We Media panel about participatory media in Asia and China, Rebecca Mackinnon just made a very interesting point.

Mackinnon, who heads Global Voices, an initiative based at the Berkman Center at Harvard University which seeks to bring bloggers from around the world to a larger overseas audience (and which recently linked up with Reuters), was previously an East Asia correspondent with CNN.

She recounted reporting on the emergence of Ohmynews, the South Korean citizen journalism site which remains the most significant project of the sort in the world.

Mackinnon argued that Ohmynews emerged out of specific socio-political conditions that existed in South Korea at the time. South Korea was an emerging democracy, but one dominant, conservative party controlled the media. At the same time, the country had among the highest rates of Internet penetration in the world. A whole generation, she said, felt an impetuous to participate in a way the existing media configuration

This is why something like Ohmynews emerged in Korea, but not in Japan. Another fact, Mackinnon argued is simply cultural. In Japan, she said, people view the relationship between individual, government, and the media differently and are less inclined to participate individually. The system was also more established and stable, with no impetuous to encourage the development of a new media configuration.

These are interesting points to consider. Over the past year, British bloggers have periodically wondered why no robust and rambunctious political blogosphere has emerged here the way it has so quickly in the United States. This periodically recurring theme re-emerged this week when Reuters reported:

… unlike in the United States, where bloggers have claimed credit for major political upsets, including the resignations of broadcaster Dan Rather and Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, British newspapers remain in charge for now of exposing the misdemeanours of public figures and institutions.

Leaving aside the question of whether number of political or media scalps claimed is the best measure of a successful blog subculture (short anwer: it is not), could similar confluences of economics, politics and culture hold the key to understanding why blogging and other forms of participatory media take off in some parts of the world but not others? Why is “mobloginng” a hit in Asia but nearly non-existant in North America?

There is certainly nothing inevitable about it. The mere existence of a technical infrastucture is a necessary but insufficient condition for the emergence of particular practices of participatory media.

Update: See also Alfred Hermida’s take on this, over on the BBC’s blog. He writes: “Would something like OhMyNews work in countries like the UK? It strikes me that we may be some way off from this happening here.”

Constructive Criticism…

Posted by Julie Tomlin on 3 May 2006 at 14:44
Tags: Ashley Cole, BBC, Blogs, Journalism, Libel, Newspapers, Sources, Television

Blogger Guido Fawkes has been on the case of BBC political correspondent Nick Robinson. Last week he picked up on his claim in his blog that the Mirror’s Prescott story was a “bombshell”.  This week he sets out some questions in response to Robinson’s 29 April entry “I’m not covering up for Prescott”
Firstly, he asks does Robinson know now of any other Prescott mistresses?

Secondly, if he does, what is the public interest in witholding her name from the public if she turns out, like Tracey, to be paid out of the public purse?

Thirdly, if he doesn’t know of any other mistresses and another subsequently comes out of the woodwork, will he feel he has done his best for the British public?

Robinson does seem to be partly entering into the spirit of blogging - unlike some newspaper (Trevor) correspondents who have launched their own blogs, Robinson does allow comments to be posted. And in his blog he does respond to allegations that ave been made that the BBC censored the Prescott story and that the reward was an exclusive with PM Tony Blair

Guido notes with satisfaction that Robinson is a reader of this blog and that he “took the hint” and clarified his “bombshell” comments. But he committed a “major breach of netiquette” says Guido for failing to link to the site despite quoting from it liberally.

“Since the Ashley Cole Case the Dead Tree Press (and the broadcast media) have become nervous about referring to, or directly linking readers and listeners to writ-risky websites,” writes Guido. “Hence the vague references to “political websites” rather than Guido or Iain Dale. Journalists are actually ringing Guido up for quotes, which they then attribute to an unnamed “controversial political website”.

Guido blames media lawyers for scaring media executives into restricting journalists from referring to risk taking bloggers. As with the Ashley Cole case it seems the relationship between “msm” and new media needs working on.

Carroll kidnappers demanded $8m

Posted by Martin Stabe on 13 April 2006 at 10:13
Tags: ABC, Iraq, Journalism, United States, War reporting

The man who negotiated the release of American journalist Jill Carroll has said that her kidnappers were demanding a ransom of $8 million.

Speaking to the American television network ABC,  Sheikh Sattam al-Gaood, a former business associate of Saddam Hussein and supporter of the Iraqi insurgency, described the kidnapping of the freelance working for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor as “a mistake”.

Al-Gaood, who was one of the people thanked by Carroll’s family following her release, denied that he had paid the ransom demanded by her kidnappers, but had instead arranged to pay for widows and orphans of Iraqi insurgents.

Reporter who refused to go to Iraq joins Al Jazeera

Posted by Martin Stabe on 4 April 2006 at 12:28
Tags: Al Jazeera, Journalism, War reporting

Al Jazeera International has added Richard Gizbert to its lineup of journalists for its launch, whenever that may be.
Gizbert will present Listening Post, a programme examining what the world’s media — everything from blogs to major outlets — covers (or fails to cover). The programme will be produced by Manchester-based Moonbeam Films, which was also behind BBC4’s media programme The Desk.

Gizbert, a long-time London-based freelance for ABC News, won an Employment Tribunal hearing for unfair dismissal after the American network did not renew his contract when he refused to go to Iraq. At their annual meeting last month, the National Union of Journalists decided to back Gizbert in the expected appeals by ABC.

(Contrary to some reports, it is unlikely that Gizbert’s defection to the Qatari network will incur the wrath of his Canadian compatriots.)

Yesterday, Five News presenter Barbara Serra joined the Qatar-based network. In recent months, the upstart channel has been aggressively recuiting high-profile English-language broadcasters. Stephen Cole, a former senior presenter for BBC World, will co-anchor from London with Felicity Barr, who joined joined from the ITV Evening News. Barnaby Phillips joined from the BBC to serve as a Europe correspondent based in Athens. Lauren Taylor, ex-ITV, is another London-based corresponent for the new channel. Sir David Frost will host a a weekly interview-led programme on al Jazeera, and former BBC Africa correspondent Rageh Omaar will host a daily documentary programme, Witness. David Foster, formerly of Sky News, will present from Doha. Also on the Al Jazeera roster are former ITN News at Ten editor John Pullman, and former ITV foreign editor Al Anstey and his deputy Nick Walshe, as well as ex-Tribune editor Mark Seddon.

A similar poaching spree has been occurring in the United States. Lucia Newman, previously Havana correspondent for CNN, will report from Buenos Aires and Mariana Sanchez will report from Caracas. In a column published in yesterday’s New York Daily News, the ormer presenter of ABC’s Nightline, David Marash, explained why he had joined Al Jazeera. Marash, who will anchor Al Jazeera International from Washington, wrote: “Al Jazeera International will do fewer stories each half hour than our cable news competitors, and our selection is likely to be different. Hopefully, this will allow us to probe a little bit deeper into stories that matter, to add some real value to your information bank.”

There have been rumours of a row between AJI and the established Arabic-languge rolling news channel. Al Jazeera MD Wadah Khanfar has been appointed director-general of Al Jazeera Satellite Network, a new umbrella for the two channels.

Journalist freed in Iraq

Posted by Martin Stabe on 30 March 2006 at 13:33
Tags: Iraq, Journalism, Online, RSS, United States, War reporting

American journalist Jill Carroll, who was held in Iraq for nearly three months, has been freed. The Christian Science Monitor is posting updates on its web site as details emerge about their reporter’s release.

There is also an RSS feed for updates on the story (RSS).

Inside this week’s Press Gazette

Posted by Martin Stabe on 30 March 2006 at 13:23
Tags: ABC, BBC, Citizen journalism, Daily Telegraph, Economist, Guardian, Journalism, Mirror, Mobile Phones, NUJ, New Media, News of the World, Online, Regionals, Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Times, War reporting

Some highlights from tomorrow’s Press Gazette:

The owners of the Daily Telegraph, the Barclay Brothers, have discovered that their ploy bringing libel cases under French criminal law — a tactic most recently deployed against the Times — cuts both ways. The Sunday Telegraph has paid out to the estranged father of comedian Jimmy Carr after his lawyers threatened drag the paper before a French tribunbal.

George Galloway has threatened to publish pictures of Mazher Mahmood after the News of the World’s “fake sheikh” attempted one of his famous sting operations on the controvertial Respect MP. (The Guardian’s Duncan Campbell today has more on the foiled “sheikh-down”.)

A former Times fashion journalist, Emily Davies, is at the heart of a plagiarism row after an American publisher gave her a £515,000 advance on a book. In a statement to us, Davies admits “genuinely accidental misattribution” of parts of the book proposal — but says there is “a dirty tricks campaign” to discredit her. Lawyers have stopped us from publishing Davies’s publicity photograph.

Regular Dog readers already know this, but the Guardian’s web site will make £1 million profit this year. This emerged at the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit, where Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow enthused about citizen journalism.

Roy Greenslade told a Newspaper Society conference that regional newspapers need to challenge to the online competition from the BBC. His most recent Daily Telegraph column is adapted from the speech. We hear that Greenslade, who recently resigned from the Telegraph, has some super-secret online project for the Guardian up his sleeve.

Multichannel television on mobile phones set to be launched by mobile network O2 within a fortnight, and if the results of a recent pilot of the service in Oxford is anything to go by, news is set to be one of the most popular offerings.

New Economist editor John Micklethwait says he wants to double the magazine’s circulation to 2 million readers worldwide over the next 10 years. Speaking of new magazine editors, we also have an interview with Matthew D’Ancona of the Spectator — he’s into punk rock, apparently.

The National Union of Journalists is backing Richard Gizbert, a London-based correspondent for ABC News, who was sacked after he refused to go to Iraq. The American television network is appealing against an Employment Tribunal ruling that Gizbert was unfairly dismissed.

Snow: Citizen media only a threat to bad journalism

Posted by Martin Stabe on 27 March 2006 at 11:10
Tags: Citizen journalism, Guardian, ITN, Journalism

Jon Snow says user-generated content is democratising journalism and will help “professionalise professional media”.

The Channel 4 presenter was speaking on a panel about user-generated content at the Guardian’s Changing Media Summit. Also on the panel were Guardian Unlimited editor Emily Bell, Virgin Radio chief executive Fru Hazlitt, and blogger Ben Hammersley, who led development of the Guardian’s new blog Comment is free.

“I have no problem with it at all. I see it as a completly liberating formula,” said Snow, who described the many tips he was getting from the hundreds of e-mails he recieves every day, such as low-level Whitehall officials who had leaked details of suspect peerages. He described viewers’ reponses as “golddust flying our way” with the biggest problem being how to sort theough the volume of information being supplied.

Facilitating feedback and transparency has helped democratise journalism, Snow argued: “You begin to look back on what you were doing and you think it was so undemocratic, it was so unresponseive, it was so arrogant.”

Journalism, he argued, can no longer be one-way street, he said, adding that there are still too many columnists who fail to supply their e-mail addresses at the foot of their pieces.

Snow also suggested that citizen journalism would force professional journalists to raise their standards.

Snow said that “much professional journalism was not very professional to begin with”, and that citizen journalists would help to “professionalise professional journalism” by exposing unprofessional media practices.

“There are a whole lot of people who entered journalism 25 years ago that no longer will be there,” he said. The endemic alcoholism of Fleet Street, he said, would no longer be acceptable today.

The only people who should feel threatened by citizen media are mediocre professionals, agreed Hammersly.

Describing the early experience of Comment is Free, Hammersley said: “A lot of the user generated content is almost as good as the lower end of the professional comment. If you’re not very good, you’re kind of screwed, because if otherwise the audience is better than you.

Editors would soon begin questioning the high salaries of columnists who offer material no better than what some of the best bloggers are offering, Hammersley predicted.

Citizen journalism guide in Press Gazette

Posted by Martin Stabe on 23 March 2006 at 10:17
Tags: BBC, CNN, Citizen journalism, ITN, Journalism, Mobile Phones, Photography, Sky

If you are interested in “citizen journalism” (or whatever you prefer to call
the many-faceted phenomenon) will enjoy the issue of Press Gazette that is out today.

Our Reporter’s Guide to Citizen Journalism is introduced by Mike Ward of the University of Central Lancashire, who argues that professional news organisations cannot afford to ignore citizen journalism. Julie Tomlin interviewed citizen journalism doyen Dan Gillmor. Graham Holliday explained how journalists can make the best use of the blogosphere. I paid a visit to the dedicated BBC unit that sifts through the deluge of “user-generated content”. Jonathan Munro of ITV, John Ryley of Sky News related their experiences of using content supplied by the cameraphone-wielding public, while Nic Robertson of CNN wrote about using a cameraphone to report from Iraq. Kyle McRae recounts the early days of his citizen journalism picture agency Scoopt, and how it has made few friends on tabloid feature desks.

For the uninitiated, we also have some links to notable citizen journalism projects
and social news aggregators and bookmarking tools.