I’m happy to announce that I’ll be part of the delivery team for a free data journalism course online early next year that is being hosted by The European Journalism Centre. Continue reading
Rubbish with *which* technology? Image by UGArdener
Last week when I wrote about things you should never say in a newsroom I really wanted to add this one. But I decided it deserved a whole post of its own. I’m talking about people who say…
People actually do say this in newsrooms – particularly when they want someone else to do something for them.
But that old excuse is wearing a bit thin now. And it’s time to put a stop to it. Continue reading
image from AEIdeas
There’s a growing awareness in journalism that simply reprocessing content from elsewhere – whether press releases or newswires – isn’t going to be viable in a world where publishers are no longer gatekeepers. ‘Do what you do best and link to the rest‘.
Now advertising seems, finally, to be waking up to the same reality. Continue reading
No tecknolegy by Sammy0716
There are certain things an aspiring journalist should never say. Here are three for starters – but what others are there?
Whether you mean newspapers, or listening to radio or TV, this is heard as “I don’t care about anything much. I have no interest in my profession. I have no understanding of the current news agenda.”
The listener doesn’t care if you’re the best writer in the world, or have a world exclusive on the back burner – they just scratched your name off a list somewhere.
“…” That… is the sound of tumbleweed. Whether you say this half-jokingly or even totally-jokingly, what an editor actually hears is:
“Everything I write will take up someone else’s time to sub-edit. At some point, some bad copy will get through and make this organisation look like a bunch of illiterate fools. PS: Don’t let me near Twitter.”
Editors don’t joke about spelling.
Most other journalists do, too: it’s annoying, having to speak to human beings when we could be spending hours honing a killer intro. But no one says it because this is the one part of the role that distinguishes them from everyone else.
So rest assured you’re not alone. Then shut up and pick up the phone.
…And here are some others suggested in comments and on Twitter:
…Because of course your email went straight to the top of their list. See 3. above.
An exception to the rule: The Sun lead their front page on an ‘out of office’ auto reply – although the full story draws more on an interview with a friend.
@paulbradshaw “I forgot to ask” – “Yeah I gave them ‘a’ call”
— Kadhim Shubber (@kadhimshubber) October 4, 2013
@paulbradshaw “what’s a blog?”, “isn’t social media just people sharing pictures of cats?”
— James Galley (@jagalley) October 4, 2013
From Cliff in the comments: You are responsible for following it up. Say “They are being evasive. I’ll keep trying.”
@marklittlenews @paulbradshaw ‘I know we’ve got this big story on, but I’ve done my 8 hours for the day and I’m going’
— Steve Dunthorne (@Steve_Dunthorne) October 4, 2013
Also from Cliff in the comments: “Whether it’s on the front page or on page five of the TV guide, treat is just as professionally. Where it’s running isn’t your job.”
From John Thompson in the comments.
@marklittlenews @paulbradshaw “I’m absent-minded. If someone reached into my Rolodex & stole a bunch of cards I may not even notice.”
— Alexander Lobov (@alexlobov) October 4, 2013
Reply: “Look harder.”
From Jack Rosenberry in the comments: Saying things such as this equate to “I’m too lazy to do enough fact checking/verification”, which is a slippery slope to errors that will clobber you.
From paperguydavies in the comments: “Did you ask ahead of time if you could write a piece about (blank) instead? Because if you did, you don’t need to say that, and if you didn’t, you shouldn’t have written a piece about (blank) instead.”
That doesn’t mean nothing new has happened since. Even the annual ‘A levels getting easier’ debate deserves coverage (because a trend has continued, and people are talking about it again), and in some cases ‘no news’ is news – if something was revealed a year ago and nothing has been done about it, for example.From Bart Brouwers.
…Until someone else gets it. Also from Bart Brouwers.
@paulbradshaw in reply to why something is spelt incorrectly or not in house style – “that’s how it was written in the press release”
— Emma O’Sullivan (@EmSulley) October 7, 2013
If you didn’t understand it, why do you think your readers will? From Deputy Editor of Devon Life Owen Jones.
After a while of working in news you can start to believe ‘new’ means ‘new to me and my friends’. It doesn’t – it means new to your audience. Stories can be new in the specialist or local press one day, new in the national press the next day, and new on TV the day after. But more than that, people in different circles know different things at different times. What matters is whether your audience knows about it.
UPDATE: Here’s a list of things to avoid in a job application too…
In a cross-post for OJB originally published on The Conversation, Neil Thurman argues that his recent research that suggests current news industry metrics underplay the importance of print reading time.
Figures published recently suggest that more than 90% of newspaper reading still happens in print. This might come as a surprise given the gloomy assessments often made of the state of print media in the UK but, it turns out, we’re just not measuring success properly. Continue reading
I’ve put together a Storify collecting together (curating!) the conversation after yesterday’s post ‘Curation *is* journalism‘. This fleshes out some of the different perspectives on curation – and on journalism.
Curation is a relatively new term in journalism, but the practice is as old as journalism itself. Every act of journalism is an act of curation: think of how a news report or feature selects and combines elements from a range of sources (first hand sources, background facts, first or second hand colour). Not only that: every act of publishing is, too: selecting and combining different types of content to ensure a news or content ‘mix’.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ in his talk to employees at the Washington Post said: “People will buy a package … they will not pay for a story.” Previously that package was limited to what your staff produced, and wire copy. But as more content becomes digitised, it is possible to combine more content from a wider variety of sources in a range of media – and on any one of a number of platforms.
Curation is nothing new – but it is becoming harder.
I’ve identified at least three distinct types of curation (you may think of more):
There are also a number of ways in which the journalist adds value (again, you may think of more):
As a journalist operating online, you are both reporter and publisher, able to curate content both at the article level and that of ‘publication’ – whether that’s a Twitter stream, a Tumblr blog, or a Flipboard magazine. Here are some suggestions for tools and techniques:
Continue reading
It’s the start of a new academic year so I thought I’d compile a list of the latest reading I would recommend for any students looking at online journalism. (If you have suggestions for additions please let me know!):
This is the last in a series of extracts from a draft book chapter on ethics in data journalism. Others have looked at how ethics of accuracy play out in data journalism projects; culture clashes, privacy, user data and collaboration; mass data gathering; and protection of sources. This is a work in progress, so if you have examples of ethical dilemmas, best practice, or guidance, I’d be happy to include it with an acknowledgement.
Budget Forecasts, Compared With Reality
Since Adrian Holovaty built ChicagoCrime.org in 2005 to automatically update a map with police crime statistics, automation has been an important element of data journalism. Few news organisations have guidelines on automation, but the BBC’s guidelines (2013) on video feeds do provide a framework. Continue reading
This is the fourth in a series of extracts from a draft book chapter on ethics in data journalism. The first looked at how ethics of accuracy play out in data journalism projects, the second at culture clashes, privacy, user data and collaboration, and the third at mass data gathering. This is a work in progress, so if you have examples of ethical dilemmas, best practice, or guidance, I’d be happy to include it with an acknowledgement.
Most news organisations’ professional guidelines include sections on protecting sources. In some countries this is also enshrined in law. Many journalists, however, are not aware of how they can betray sources’ identity by publishing original files online.
Metadata stored in those files – information about the date and location of access, the computers and accounts used, and other data, can be used to identify a leaker. Even photocopied or printed materials can bear invisible digital watermarks which describe what machines were used to produce them, and when (Reimer, 2005; PicMarkr, 2008). Continue reading
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