Links - 3/1/2012
Some news and opinion from the last few days:
- Rupert Murdoch joins Twitter
- Sky News’ Alex Crawford awarded OBE
- Forget the iPad, let’s enjoy reading on the web in 2012
- Fleet Street Blues’ top 5 journalism heroes and villains of 2011
- 21 journalism blogs recommended by David Higgerson
One of the most memorable pictures of the year for me, which also features in Getty Image’s “Year In Focus 2011” magazine.
Links - 23/12/2011
Some news and opinion from the last week or so:
- Journalism student cycling 700km across the Himalayas to raise £3,000 for charity Childreach International
- Jon Slattery – “So how easy is it to become a member of the NUJ?”
- Mail Online website reaches just shy of 85 million unique visitors a month. This blog has a little way to go, then.
- Richard Hammond features 9th on Fleet Street Blues’ list of the ten “most prolific” journalists of 2011. Yes, seriously.
- Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week – iRig Recorder
- Gannett buys thousands of iPads, iPhones, and netbooks for its editorial staff
- In a week where marriage was revealed to be on the down and divorce on the up, arguably one of Britain’s best-loved on-screen couples – the BT family – has decided to call things a day, in what some people are calling a stark and damning indictment of modern-day Britain’s approach to wedlock. Others are calling it a complete non-story…
As one commenter rightly points out on Fleet Street Blues’ list of this year’s most prolific journalists: if any regional newspaper hack was churning out copy at that slow a rate, they would be sacked. Personally I’d sack the compiler of the list merely for thinking about including Richard Hammond in the same category as Josh Halliday and Nick Fletcher.
BBC Postgraduate Student Journalism Innovation Award
More information on the award mentioned in Joanna Geary’s tweet below.
BBC launches innovation award for journalism students: m.ijnet.org/opportunities/…
— Joanna Geary (@GuardianJoanna) December 17, 2011
Tim Hetherington in Libya: witness to war – in pictures
Tim Hetherington, another great British-American journalist also died earlier this year after being killed by Libyan mortar shells whilst covering Libya’s civil war, has had his final shots published by the Guardian. He is best known for the film Restrepo, which I can highly recommend.
A fraction of the tributes and memories from Hitchens’ admirers:
- “The consumate writer, the brilliant friend”
- “A contrarian for whom radicalism was a style”
- Slate.com’s David Weigel remembers Hitchens
- Vanity Fair Editor – Graydon Carter – remembers Hitchens
- “Polemicist who slashed all, freely, dies at 62
- “Tributes and reactions”
- “A fearless master-stylist and a pain in the neck” - Simon Jenkins
- George Eaton of the New Statesman remembers Hitchens
- “Christopher Hitchens quotes: the writer’s most memorable bons mots”
Links - 17/12/2011
A round-up of some of this morning’s news and opinion:
- The Guardian’s standalone sports section is to be incorporated into the main newspaper as part of a cost-saving initiative.
- The Lancashire Evening Post has disabled the comments system on its website due to “persistent malicious posters abusing our comments facility.”
- FOI requests from the media are treated differently to requests from members of the public (in The Highland Council at least).
- Apple launches its iTunes Match service in the U.K.
- Was 2011 newspaper’s annus horribilis?
- David Higgerson’s FOI Friday (even though it’s Saturday)
The Highland Council’s slip-up in response to Rachel Stewart’s FOI request has brought about another request to The Highland Council, this time from Mr Doug Paulley, who has challenged them on their apparent failure to treat requests as applicant- and purpose-blind. The new request can be found here.
Wannabe Hacks: iPad 2 as a mobile journalism tool
An article I wrote for Wannabe Hacks last week on how journalists can make the best of the iPad 2’s functionality for reporting on the go.
Links - 16/12/2011
A round-up of some of this morning’s news and opinion:
- Nick Davies tells Newsnight that everybody around him at The Guardian believed the Dowler Story was true
- Labour MP, Helen Goodman, explains why the PCC reforms do not go far enough
- The Times ceases production of its satirical podcast, The Bugle
- Newly-appointed digital publishing director for Trinity Mirror, David Higgerson, encourages us to target less-than-obvious FOI-able bodies.
- Speaking of Higgerson’s new position, Trinity Mirror are to create 20 digital jobs across its regional newspaper division
- Do you want to work for the Daily Mail?
Private email accounts are now subject to FOI act
Great news for information transparency. I now expect impressively obtuse ways to misunderstand FOI requests.
Newsquest-owned Yeovil Express is to close, only a few weeks after the closure of Northcliffe Media’s Yeovil Times.
Full story at Hold The Front Page.
Links - 15/12/2011
This morning’s round-up of some news and opinion:
- Wannabe Hacks’ latest post on the top 5 smartphone apps for journalists
- Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week (iPhone only, sorry) - ‘Voddio’
- UK sportswomen criticise ‘abysmal’ coverage of women in sport, following the furore over the all-male shortlist for BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Award
- 37-year-old woman arrested at 6.15am this morning, on suspicion of making illegal payments to police
- Royal Wedding, iPhone 5, FIFA 12, Groupon, and iPad 2 were Google’s top 5 ‘fastest rising’ search terms of 2011
- The Times, The Sun and The Daily Mail criticise The Guardian for reporting the News of the World were resposible for the deletion of Milly Dowler’s voicemails
- Newsquest launches Young Reporter scheme to give students experience of newsrooms and the opportunity to get their work published
- Johnston Press mobile versions of its 211 websites go live
- A great little essay from Journoterrorist.com: “The Editor and The Stripper”
- Checklist for being a ‘real’ journalist, from Stuff Journalists Like
Wannabe Hacks’ piece on smartphone apps for journalists is revealing some great suggestions in the comments section. As the article mentions, it follows on from my Hacks post last week on using an iPad as a mobile journalism tool.
Here’s a great video from Nick Garnett, BBC Radio 5 live’s North-East reporter, on using an iPhone on the go:
