Tag Archives: news:rewired

5 highlights from news:rewired: from live video ethics to mobile data journalism

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Photo: Reuters News Agency

In a guest post for OJB, Livia Vieira rounds up some of the highlights of News:Rewired 2017, from best practices to deal with fake news and engagement with live videos, to newsroom automation, mobile data journalism and collaborative storytelling and groundbreaking initiatives in newsrooms. 

1. Engagement and ethics in live social video

According to Alfred Joyner, head of video of IBT Media, 66% of the views on Facebook Live videos happen after they end, so it is important to re-package the content, giving it new meaning.

Alfred also emphasised that IBT trains its anchors and uses high quality equipment to ensure the quality of transmissions — although all speakers hit on the point that Facebook Live is not TV, and so does not need to have that ‘casted’ format. Continue reading →

News:rewired – Interview with Nicolas Kayser-Bril

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French data journalist Nicolas Kayser-Bril (and former OJB contributor) gave the keynote speech at news:rewired. He used to work for OWNI, but since 2011 has been the CEO of Journalism++, a start-up that ‘accompanies newsrooms in their transitions towards the web of data’.

During his presentation he tried to explain the first steps that anyone interested in this area should follow to start producing stories, like building a datastore.

After the speech we had a quick chat with him about the importance of introducing data in newsrooms, the situation in France (where he feels data journalism is very dynamic – “a lot of people are doing stuff, like in Liberátion or Le Monde”) and the skills that a journalist should have to get started. “There are some stories nowadays that require the use of data intensely,” he says. “Especially when it comes into public policies.”

“As a data journalist you need curiosity and the ability to teach yourself: the basic skills of any journalist.”

Two reasons why every journalist should know about scraping (cross-posted)

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This was originally published on Journalism.co.uk – cross-posted here for convenience.

Journalists rely on two sources of competitive advantage: being able to work faster than others, and being able to get more information than others. For both of these reasons, I  love scraping: it is both a great time-saver, and a great source of stories no one else has. Continue reading →

Scraping for Journalists – ebook out now

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My ebook Scraping for Journalists: How to grab data from hundreds of sources, put it in a form you can interrogate – and still hit deadlines is now live.

You can buy it from Leanpub here. Leanpub allows you to publish in installments, so you get an alert every time new content is added and update your version. This means I can adapt and improve the book based on feedback from the people who use it. In other words, it’s agile publishing, which makes for a better book. (Also, I can publish at a Codecademy-like weekly pace which suits learning particularly well.)

There’s a Facebook page and a support blog for the book for commenting too.

Meanwhile, here’s a presentation I did at News:Rewired last week which covers some of the ground from the book:

Video: Guardian's Beat Blogger for Cardiff: breaking the boundaries between blogger and journalist

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It’s an modern day battle: journalist versus blogger. Often operating in the same field, but with very different aims and objectives, some traditional reporters are wary of this new breed of content creator. However, a new Beat-Blogger role, created by The Guardian, has brought the 2 fields closer together.

Having a local blogger based in several cities around the UK, The Guardian has given itself direct contact with the community, something a national paper would often overlook.

Hannah Waldram is the beat-blogger in Cardiff. At News:Rewired she told OJB more about how the new project is going, and how it has been accepted in the city.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEAaLCcjsbk%5D

Video: Vikki Chowney & Tony Curzon-Price on creating a buzz: how to get your content noticed

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With so much news content available online and a host of ways to promote and share that material it’s often hard for journalists and bloggers to know how to make their content stand out. There are a host of companies offering a quick fix to this problem with promises of Facebook friends and sky-high traffic stats. However, some of the most successful blogs go for a niche audience who care about the subject matter, and spread the word organically.

OJB grabbed a few minutes at News:Rewired with Vikki Chowney (Reputation Online), and Tony Curzon-Price (openDemocracy) to find out how they make an impact online

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VuF23TDBDI%5D [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm4Tl6Fnp1w%5D

Video: BBC at the 2012 Olympics: visualisations, maps and augmented reality

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With 2 years to go to the 2012 Olympics, the BBC are already starting to plan their online coverage of the event. With a large, creative team at hand who have experimented with maps, visualisations and interactive content in the past, the pressure is on them to keep the standards high.

At the recent News:Rewired event, OJB caught up with Olympics Reporter Ollie Williams, himself a visualisation guru, to find out exactly what they were planning for 2012.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP0cUtOrvkE%5D

Video interview: The Times: safeguarding journalism?

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Currently running as a registration service, The Times plan to launch their paid-for site in the next few weeks. So far they are reluctant to release initial registration figures and the demographic audience they are attracting. OJB caught up with Assistant Editor and Head of Online Tom Whitwell at News:Rewired to find out more:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCWt1b14yx8%5D