Year: 2009

Stuff I've seen November 1st through to November 2nd

These are my links for November 1st through November 2nd:

  • Poles, Politeness and Politics in the age of Twitter « The New Adventures of Stephen Fry – “the most fatuous and maddening aspect of the press’s (perfectly understandable) fear, fascination and dread of Twitter: the insulting notion that twitterers are wavy reeds that can be blown this way or that by the urgings of a few prominent ‘opinion formers’. It is hooey, it is insulting hooey and it is wicked hooey. The press dreads Twitter for all kinds of reasons.”
  • Investment to The Media Bus | Futurebuilders – Futurebuilders invests ion a mobiel media training bus: “We have just offered an investment of £344,573 to The Media Bus. £297,527 of it will be a loan and £47,046 will be a grant. The Media Bus is a social enterprise in Poole that was set up by White Lantern Film as a solution to the growing demand for educational projects and digital media training in locations with poor technical resources.”
  • Supporting Birmingham Conservation Trust if you’re in business – A whole load of ways businesses can support one of my favourite charities – Birmingham Conservation Trust. Non of them cost you any more than a little attention.
  • Beware the instant online anger of the HobNob mob | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer – The heart of this piece on the power of online movements is the final very fine paragraph: ” A mob fighting a good cause is still a mob. To fight back, you need to remember that although the internet age is hugely expanding the number of complaints, the old rules still apply. Whether you are the owner of a tiny blog or the editor of a national newspaper, if someone points out an incorrect fact, you correct it; if someone challenges an argument, you argue back; and if someone says that you must think what they think, you ignore them.”

What journalism students need to know: New skills for a new model

Another topic which arose out of the C&binet conference in London was the new skills in business and entrepreneurship which journalism students need to be taught to prepare for the changing landscape of the media.

City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism students already take a class in entrepreneurship. Jeff Jarvis, who teaches there, thinks should learn to be stewards of journalism – learning for example how to set up hyperlocal sites, invite and train collaborators, and turn the news site into a successful business.

Details of the hypothetical news model from CUNY can be found here – and it is in the process of being translated for the UK.

It is clear from developments in the US – which the UK will duly follow – journalism students need to be taught or encouraged to do entrepreneurship to make sure they take off in the new climate – rather than fall flat on their face because their traditional skill-set no longer stands up to what the market demands. Read more

Council reporting – who is going to do it?

This is the fourth in our series of blogposts on the C&binet conference in London which took place last week. Following on from the first session on the state of newspapers and value of news, the issue of council reporting was raised in discussion.

With the decline of regional news coverage are we in danger of losing reports which hold the local council to account. Someone asked how much council reporting was actually going on anyway – are we seeing local reporting though rose-tinted glasses and not realising how little is done by regional media. Some councils actively try to stamp out probing news coverage by refusing journalists access to certain meetings and councillors.

Councils need to be open to bloggers and hyperlocal reporters and treat them like other news organisations (which is by no means an ideal relationship either) – by being given access to council meetings and documents and councillors themselves. Read more

Hyperlocal news models

This is the third post in our series from the C&binet conference on what the government should do about hyperlocal. Highly developed in the US, Rachel Sterne from GroundReport presented four types of hyperlocal news models.


US Hyperlocal News Market –

Whether networked or single locality journalism, hyperlocal start-ups all have some sort of editorial position and a hierarchy and production system which favours skilled editor roles. The voluntary start-ups often have an authentic and raw feel, but can be inconsistent in maintenance (thus professionalism) and attract small audiences. Hyperlocal sites which have a media parent, such as the recently launched Guardian Local and Associated Press’ Local People sites provide an instant audience, content pool, and access to the technology and resources, but can lack innovation which is prohibited by the internal politics of the media legacy of the publisher which need to be followed.

Models from the US showed how giving content providers (who write and upload articles voluntarily) a platform to publish content rewards them with being pitched next to writers on a site which give them credibility and an impetus to work hard. Similarly deputised editors will work on the basis they feel privileged to have access and control over content. GroundReport and The Huffington Post are good examples of this.

The final slide in the presentation on hyperlocal models shows government funded sites while delivering high quality of coverage would gain limited audience and less sustainable.