There have been rumblings for a while about the establishment of a UK investigation foundation, and now it’s here. They’re not accepting cash at the moment, just pledges of support and help. So go help them.
Here’s their open letter: [Read more]
new journalists for new information
Information is changing. The news industry was born in a time of information scarcity – and any understanding of the laws of supply and demand will tell you that that made information valuable.
But the past 30 years have seen that the erosion of that scarcity. Not only have the barriers to publishing, broadcast and distribution been lowered by desktop publishing, satellite and digital technologies, and the web – but a booming PR industry has grown up to provide these news organisations with ‘cheap’ news.
Information is changing. Increasingly, we are not seeking information out – instead, it finds us. The scarcity is not in information, but in our time to wade through it, make meaning of it, and act on it.
Information is changing, and so journalists must too. In the previous parts of this series I’ve looked at how the news process could change in a multiplatform environment; how to involve the former audience; what can now happen after a story is published; journalists and readers as distributors; and new media business models. In this part I want to look at personnel – and how we might move from a generic, hierarchy of ‘reporters’, ’subs’ and ‘editors’ to a more horizontal structure of roles based on information types. [Read more]
Taking place this Friday, the ‘Investigative Journalism Goes Global’ conference at the University of Westminster has one of the most impressive casts of panelists you could ask for (and I’m not just saying that because I’m on one of the panels). An event like this deserves a good turnout – I’m hoping it can spark off some ideas about how we can maintain investigative journalism in a new media world, so if you want to meet up and chat about that let me know. Here’s the full running order: [Read more]
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