The Sun clearly excelling in its framing of Gadaffi’s death…
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Reporting Gadaffi’s death, UK newspaper front pages
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Tag Archives: Journalism
Twitter: breaking news before there is anything to officially break
Bill Simmons:
Twitter, which exacerbates the demands of immediacy, blurs the line between reporting and postulating, and forces writers to chase too many bum steers. With every media company unabashedly playing the "We Had It First!" game, reporters' salary and credibility hinges directly on how many stories they break. That entices reporters to become enslaved to certain sources (almost always agents or general managers), push transparent agendas (almost always from those same agents or GMs) and "break" news before there's anything to officially break. It also swings the source/reporter dynamic heavily toward the source. Take care of me and I will take care of you.
From great article on the accidental Tweet
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Murdoch: Would Serve Powerful If Bloggers, Bloviators Replace Journalists
Rupert Murdoch on justifying journalism:
Now, it would certainly serve the interests of the powerful if professional journalists were muted – or replaced as navigators in our society by bloggers and bloviators. Bloggers can have a social role – but that role is very different to that of the professional seeking to uncover facts, however uncomfortable.
I guess he does not consider his own journalists to be "professional" then, since they prop up his own political and business interests on a regular basis…
Unions deserve to be covered by specialists
Christine Buckley:
But the signs are that this could change as the country begins to absorb the toughest public spending cuts since the 1930s and the trade union movement, with its seven million members, becomes one of the main forums through which people can protest. What a pity, then, that virtually no national media organisation has any specialist correspondents covering the unions.
[...]
But the bigger point about the demise of industrial reporters is the growing erosion of specialisms as media organisations cut jobs. Reporters are increasingly forced to regurgitate wire copy or quickly file stories with little or no knowledge of the subjects.
Couldn't agree more.
University of Colorado may shut down journalism school to create a more tech-oriented degree program
Stefanie Chernow writing at the Editors Weblog:
Digital trends in the media are affecting every aspect of the journalism field, including education. The University of Colorado at Boulder is pondering closing its journalism department in favor of a new degree program that would combine journalism and computer science skills. According to Editor & Publisher, the new academic unit could compound on existing strengths in journalism, yet adding computer science course will "prepare students for an ever-changing communications and media marketplace."
Another example of other disciplines taking over journalism education.
Still baffles me how the industry struggles to differentiate between online / multimedia journalism and web development / production… the two are not and never will be the same thing.
Science Journalism in a Digital Age – Call for Papers
SPECIAL ISSUE OF JOURNALISM: THEORY, PRACTICE AND CRITICISM
Guest Editor: Stuart Allan, Bournemouth University, UK
In taking science journalism as its focus, this special issue of Journalism will seek to contribute to current debates about the ways in which this important genre of reporting is being transformed by the changes ushered in by digital media.
Today it is readily apparent that precisely what counts as ‘science news’ is undergoing dramatic redefinition as the convergence of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media continues apace. The challenges facing the science journalist have always been formidable, of course, but the internet and associated digital technologies are bringing to bear new pressures and constraints – as well as creating fresh opportunities for innovation – deserving of our close attention. While the very future of science journalism is being called into question by some, others point to alternative approaches to science reporting that are flourishing online.
In exploring these concerns, this special issue’s agenda is informed by a sense of urgency. At a time when many news organizations are under intense financial pressure to trim or reduce expenditure on specialist, investigative reporting, it is all too often the case that science news is regarded as expendable. In the eyes of some, it is a luxury increasingly difficult to justify when other types of news will be more popular with audiences (and thus advertisers). CNN’s decision to cut its entire science, technology and environment news staff, for example, provoked widespread alarm when it was announced in 2008. Few commentators failed to note the irony that science issues – such as climate change, stem cell research, evolution and bio-terrorism – were proving sufficiently controversial to attract intense news coverage at the time.
Accordingly, a guiding theme of the special issue is that current assessments of the news media’s public responsibilities in a democracy can be enriched by inquiries into the changing nature of science journalism. Possible topics to be examined may include:
- The political economy of science journalism
- Journalists’ uses of digital technologies in science reporting
- Rethinking the news values of science coverage
- Scientists as news sources and the politics of expertise
- The framing of controversy in science stories
- The impact of blogging on science news
- Audience perceptions of science news on the web
- Science journalism and social networking
Prospective authors should submit an abstract of approximately 250 words by email to Stuart Allan (sallan@bournemouth.ac.uk). A selection of authors will be invited to submit a full paper according to the journal’s Notes for Contributors. Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, given that all papers will be subjected to peer review.
Timeline
Deadline for abstracts: 1 October, 2010; deadline for submission of articles: 31 December, 2010. Final revised papers due: March, 2011. Publication: Volume 12, No. 7
About Editor
Stuart Allan’s science-related publications include Environmental Risks and the Media (co-edited, 2000), Media, Risk and Science (2002), and Nanotechnology, Risk and Communication (co-authored, 2009). Recent co-written journal articles have appeared in New Genetics and Society (2005), Science Communication (2005), Health, Risk & Society (2007), Public Understanding of Science (2009), and Journal of Risk Research (2010).
Professor Stuart Allan
The Media School
Bournemouth University
Talbot Campus
Poole, Dorset
BH12 5BB
UK
Open door: The Guardian’s football correspondent on … the World Cup and technology
Kevin McCarra:
Access to the internet, I am glad to say, has done away entirely with the silly assumption that journalists have access to a higher knowledge.
[...]
For good or ill, the internet, provoking disagreement and speculation as well as listing facts, is a factor in presenting the game with an ever larger status. As the ruling body for football globally, Fifa have little option but to be staid, but they could still trumpet the impact of their website, with almost 53 million people accessing a total of 1.6 billion pages in the first two weeks of June.
Websites, whether statistical, solemn, esoteric or comic, disseminate limitless quantities of information about even the most obscure footballers and managers. The press fool themselves if they suppose for an instant that they can be a priesthood who own a sacred knowledge.
Let’s subsidize open broadband, not journalists (newspaper industry deserves to die)
Dan Gillmor:
I love newspapers. I worked in them for almost 25 years. But I'm not itching to bail out a business that is failing in large part because it was so transcendentally greedy in its monopoly era that it passed on every opportunity to survive against real financial competition. With a few exceptions, the newspaper industry essentially deserves to die at this point.
Ad-funded Guardian could switch off presses by 2015
Alan Rusbridger:
We are earning tens of millions of pounds and it’s increasing at about 100 percent a year at the moment
[...]
Let’s say we’re earning about £40m at the moment in digital revenue.
Peter Kirwan:
Now these are important numbers. Among other things, they suggest that Guardian News & Media (GNM) might yet succeed in building a fully-digital future without any help from paywalls, even if Wapping does meet with success.
Design is key to good online journalism, not just coding and data
John Hillman:
Yet in many ways a digital journalist is more likely to struggle with design than coding. Before you can begin coding you have to have this side of things clear, whether you are working on your own independent blog or developing a complex data rich piece for a much larger news website.
[...]
My opinion is that, like coding, you’ll get the best results when you’re working in a team of professionals; that digital trinity of a journalist, a coder and a designer.
As an online editor for a digital media company, I am aware of just how important coding is, although I don’t believe that journalists and coders will ever meld into the same role. I just think that a modern journalist should be able to understand and talk about web architecture fluently. The same applies to basic design principles.
Make that information architecture and I'll agree – should be understood by all modern journalists.