The Telegraph is starting to make a habit of combining Flash and databases to impressive effect. Their latest project brings in mapping too, to produce a political map of the UK which has real depth behind its Flashy appearance.
So the Independent has relaunched its website. At first glance there’s nothing spectacularly new or innovative, but a deeper look reveals some intelligent changes – particularly on the business side of things. Here are the headlines: Continue reading
Last week I interviewed Mike Hill, Deputy Editor of the Lancashire Evening Post, for an article on changing tools and approaches in local newsrooms (due to appear on Journalism.co.uk). Mike has some interesting plans on using surveys beyond the simple reader poll (since reported here), and experiences of the weaknesses of geotagging, among other things. The interview can be heard here – it’s around 10 minutes.
In two weeks I begin teaching the 2008 class on Online Journalism. As a way of inviting ideas and being open source and all that, I thought I would post 2007’s classes online. The first lecture is below…
…it’s very much one-word slides with me riffing off them, but hopefully it gives you a sense of what areas I covered. The idea here is to get students thinking about their own motivations before they begin, and for me to get an idea of why they’re doing this. Continue reading
Eric Ulken has taken “all the online job descriptions on JournalismJobs.com from this year, omitted the non-technical words (like “editor”, “seeks” and “self-starter”) and built a tagcloud out of the rest”. This is the result:
Eric Ulken | Technical skills in journalism jobs
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Last semester (Nov 2007), as part of a module I teach called Magazine Design, I asked students to contribute to a wiki looking at magazines’ new media ventures. Each student was assigned a particular magazine sector (e.g. B2B or computing) and had to explore the websites, find information etc.
Some will think me cruel for making students look at the websites of the likes of Uniforms Magazine and Mailing Systems Technology. Continue reading
Two weeks ago I conducted a mini-survey of readers. For those who responded, thank you very much – for those who tried to but couldn’t because it was closed, apologies (Surveymonkey’s free version only allows 100 responses and it reached that point within two days). Here are the results:
Employment
On Monday I shall be on a panel at Warwick University’s One World Week discussing the ‘Changing Face of the Media‘. The blurb:
Traditional forms of media, such as print and television, are in decline as far as circulation and audience ratings are concerned. There is no consensus as to whether the cause is a greater variety of information sources, or whether the few that hold the power over large parts of the media sector are consolidating their influence. This debate will also question how the sector is responding to this challenge, seen as some would argue that the industry as a whole is not suffering, particularly in light of the meteoric rise of the internet as a source of information.
Other panellists include NCTJ chairman and former Independent on Sunday editor Kim Fletcher; broadcaster and professor Ivor Gaber; and TV producer Muddassar Ahmed.
If you want to shout abuse at me, say hello, or just lurk, the talk runs 3:00pm-4:30pm (Monday 21st), at the University of Warwick Arts Centre – Cinema. As far as I can tell entrance is free.
Likewise, if you think there are any points you’d like me to make based on the above blurb, post them to the comments please!
Garrett Monaghan and Sean Tunney, editors of the forthcoming book, Web Journalism: A New Form of Citizenship? (Sussex Academic Press) are inviting proposals for additional chapters. Here’s the blurb: Continue reading
Could 2008 be the year geotagging breaks through? Archant are the ones to watch in the UK with (delayed) plans to geotag all their stories. I asked Suffolk’s Web Editor James Goffin to write a piece for the OJB on his experience with the process – and the opportunities it’s opening up.
Journalists have always asked the question “Where?”. People are interested in news from where they live, and it’s a sad fact that tragedies abroad have more resonance when there’s a British passport holder involved.
As communities have become more mobile, those associations have become more complex – people reminisce about their home town, where they used to work; they are interested in where they live now, where their brothers and sisters have moved to. The world around them has become more complex too, as has the sheer amount of information being pumped out around them. Continue reading
Online Journalism Blog 
