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Making sense of the intersection between media, society and technology

June 23, 2009 • 11:15 am 2

Innovative funding model to improve global news reporting

A documentary on the global traffic in e-waste produced by students at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism airs on Frontline/World’s season finale on June 23.

Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground investigates the growing problems caused by the global trade in electronic waste.

Among the headline-grabbing findings, the students bought hard drive in Ghana which contained sensitive US Homeland data about military contracts.

The work was produced as part of an new course in International Reporting run by my colleague, Peter Klein.

But it was only possible due to an innovative funding approach that combines social entrepreneurship, journalism education and professional partnerships.

Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground came about thanks to a $1 million donation by Vancouver venture philanthropist Alison Lawton of Mindset Foundation to UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism.

The gift launched Canada’s first International Reporting course that sends students abroad to report on untold global stories.

Over the course of 10 years, the donation will enable 10 students to travel and produce international journalism for major media outlets focusing on broadcast and online.

But the donation is more than filling the gap left by news organisations as they close down foreign bureaus and cut back on spending.

A key part of the project is to prepare the next generation of journalists to report on an increasingly interconnected and complex world, examining existing practices and considering new ways to reflect on the world beyond our borders.

In the words of venture philanthropist Alison Lawton, who set up the Mindset Foundation:

My core philosophy has always been working with people, investing in human capital. This course will challenge students to look beyond the constraints of conventional mainstream media and examine the definition of conscientious reporting.

This is one potential model to consider as we seek to find ways of funding journalism. It invests in the journalists of tomorrow, while at the same time seeking to address under-reported stories and work in partnership with a major media outlet.

Filed under: academics, education, innovation, journalism , , ,

April 23, 2009 • 11:27 am 0

Please vote in the BC New Media PopVox awards

PopVox awards posterA couple of projects that I am involved in are up for BC New Media PopVox awards.

The awards are part of  Vancouver Digital Week, designed to celebrate the digital media industry in British Columbia.

The hyperlocal news website produced by UBC School of Journalism students, TheThunderbird.ca, is nominated in the Best Student Project award.

We are also nominated in the Best Digital Learning Initiative (Instructional Design) category for a digital learning initiative using CoveritLive to turn the traditional lecture into a participatory experience for students.

The PopVox Awards is a New Media BC initiative and are decided by popular vote.  I would appreciate your support by voting for the projects.

You can vote for our entry for Best Student Project here and for Best Digital Learning Initiative here.

Voting takes place until April 30, 2009. Thanks for taking the time and good luck to all entrants.

Filed under: academics, innovation, journalism, social media , , , ,

April 17, 2009 • 7:07 am 3

ProPublica’s Paul Steiger on the troubled future for journalism

Steiger is concerned about the decline of watchdog journalism

Steiger is concerned about the decline of watchdog journalism

“There is no question it is a revolution”, said Paul Steiger of ProPublica of the changes brought about by the internet to journalism as he kicks off the the International Online Journalism Symposium at UT Austin in Texas.

Steiger has three ways of looking at what is happening to the media:

  • The future of newspapers is terrible
  • The future for journalism is good
  • The future for journalists is mixed

Particularly when it comes to the future for journalists, Steiger said that this was as exciting a time as he can remember for young and adaptable reporters.

But for many talented and experienced journalists, the outlook is bleak, especially for journalists in their fifties who should be at the peak of their careers.

Steiger talked about the recession and the problem facing news outlets, warning that there will be many more newspapers to close.

He also expressed concern that many more who will squeeze into a pale shadow of themselves, and be unable to fulfill their service to society

While the internet offers tremendous potential, Steiger warned that the destruction of the newspaper model is hurting society by undermining the watchdog role of the press.

According to him, in-depth and investigative reporting can only be done by professional journalists and not by bloggers or “citizen journalists”.

He also lamented that the broad scope of coverage in metropolitan newspapers is also suffering, with readers offered a far less diverse range of options.

Instead, he talked about the rise of boutique news outlets, such as hyperlocal web-only operations that highly focused with tight budgets. There will also be foreign-focused sites or sites with a topic focus.

Whether Steiger likes it or not, what has happened to newspapers is the unbundling of the news. The convenience of a product that delivered a bundle of news to the doorstep has been undermined by the internet.

Steiger concludes his keynote with words of both hope and fear, talking that we are in a period of creative destruction, and “creative destruction offers opportunity and terror”.

Filed under: academics, innovation, journalism

March 3, 2009 • 10:35 am 1

Jon Stewart urges you to ’show us your tweets’

Now that the mainstream media, politicians and other “rotting corpses grabbing for any glimmer of relevance” have jumped on Twitter, Jon Stewart offers a refreshing satirical take on the phenonenon:

And of course, you can follow me on Twitter @hermida

Filed under: Web 2.0, innovation, internet, journalism

February 22, 2009 • 10:06 am 3

Marc Andreesen advises newspapers to shut down the presses

Netscape founder Marc Andreessen shared his provocative ideas on newspapers, the future of the internet and more on Charlie Rose.

Whether you agree with him or not that the printing presses should be shut down,
Andreessen is an engaging speaker and well worth listening to.

Oh, and he believes video gaming is a core human experience, and Gears of War 2 is his favourite game at the moment.

(Via Six Pixels of Separation)

Filed under: innovation, internet, journalism, newspapers , , ,

January 22, 2009 • 4:05 pm 3

Principles of journalism as a word cloud

As I was preparing a lecture for my undergraduate class in new media and journalism, it occurred to me to create a word cloud of the nine principles of journalism from the Project for Excellence in Journalism:

Principles of journalism

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Filed under: Web 2.0, innovation, internet, journalism , , ,

January 20, 2009 • 10:50 am 1

Barack Obama’s White House starts blogging

As Barack Obama was taking the oath of office, the White House website received a radical makeover, notably with the launch of the White House Blog.

In an introductory entry, timed 12.01 EST, Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, wrote:

Millions of Americans have powered President Obama’s journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country’s future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration’s efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.

Having a blog direct from the White House is to be welcomed.

Image of White House blogThe challenge for the Obama administration will be maintaining a policy of communication, transparency and participation not just during the good times, but also when the new president comes under fire for difficult decisions.

However, maybe Phillips’ team could change the blog icon on the website – having a graphic of an old-style newspaper doesn’t exactly say “change”.

Filed under: Web 2.0, blogging, innovation, internet, media , , ,

November 20, 2008 • 11:00 am 0

Setback to Canadian campaign for network neutrality

Supporters of network neutrality have suffered a setback with the CRTC ruling in the case against Bell over Internet throttling.

The communications regulator denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers’ (CAIP) request that Bell Canada cease the traffic-shaping practices it has adopted for its wholesale services.

However, this is turning out to be just the first round in the battle over network neutrality. The CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein acknowledged that:

The broader issue of Internet traffic management raises a number of questions that affect both end-users and service providers. We have decided to hold a separate proceeding to consider both wholesale and retail issues. Its main purpose will be to address the extent to which Internet service providers can manage the traffic on their networks in accordance with the Telecommunications Act.

As part of this process, the CRTC is holding a public hearing next year to look at how service providers manage traffic on their networks. As Michael Geist notes about today’s CRTC ruling:

The decision is not a total loss for net neutrality supporters as the Commission made a clear commitment to addressing the issue of net neutrality and network management in a formal proceeding in July 2009.  Indeed, it is important not to lose sight of how much has changed in the past year.

The question of network neutrality could become one of the big technology issues of 2009. In the US, president-elect Barack Obama has expressed his support for the idea of the net as a neutral platform.

In Canada, the SaveOurNet coalition has already launched a campaign to lobby the CRTC over its decision.

(Via Newslab.ca)

Filed under: Canada, innovation, internet, new media , , , ,

October 7, 2008 • 11:26 am 0

How to get your idea funded by the Knight News Challenge

Susan Mernit was in Vancouver on Monday for a Knight News Challenge meetup. Around 40 people were there to hear how to get a slice of the millions the Knight Foundation is investing in innovative projects from around the world.

Susan explained that the Knight News Challenge is looking for four things in a proposal:

  • It has to be innovative. But this can also be dependent on the geographic location of a project. What is innovative in Canada will be different to what is innovative in Uganda.
  • It has to be open source, scalable and replicable. Knight is looking for tools that can be developed and used by others.
  • It has to serve the public interest. The projects should aim to help create a more active and informed citizenship. This could be through providing a place for democractic discourse.
  • It has to serve a specific geographic community. What this means is that a project need to have a local testbed, much like Knight News Challenge winner Everyblock started off in Chicago and has now expanded to other US cities.

She also gave more details about the sorts of ideas that were likely to be well received. While Knight does not have a specific social justice focus, it is looking for projects that support democracy. It is also interested in ideas that make take data and information that is invisible and make it visible to the public, enabling a public discourse.

In a way, the Knight Foundation is trying to restore the role that US local newspapers had in serving a  community by  providing a place for people to find out what was happening in their area.

The way Knight has judged the applications has evolved since the project two years ago. Susan explained that the initial raft of proposals will be screened by a committee, whose ages ranged from 23 to 60, and are drawn from the world of online news, technology and non-profit.

This committee will chose projects and ask for more detailed submissions. In 2007, 400 ideas got to this stage out of 3,000 applications. These will then be judged by a final committee, among them Craig Newmark of Craigslist. In 2007, there were 67 finalists and 17 projects were funded.

Susan also explained that applicants should express why they are the person to do a project. ‘Sell yourself as much as your idea,” she advised. This could mean that you have the technical skills to turn an idea into a reality, or that you have a passion for the idea.

If you are in Vancouver and want to collaborate on an idea, there is a space online to share ideas and get feedback.  Richard Eriksson created the page, and asked in his blog post on the KNC08 meeting:

What’s missing in the digital sphere of Vancouver that would enhance the discussions citizens are having about the city and the region? Do we need an EveryBlock for Vancouver, or has that been done for other cities? Maybe we can do something a little different?

Time to get thinking. The deadline for the initial application is November 1.

(Photo: Copyright 2008 Tris Hussey)

Filed under: innovation, journalism, technology , , , ,

September 19, 2008 • 1:32 pm 2

How blogarbage gives blogs a bad name

146/365 - Gossip Hound

Image by lynnftw via Flickr

A Vancouver blogger, Lisa Bettany has written a thought-provoking piece for The Province on how celebrity sites like Perez Hilton are giving blogs a bad name.

As a well-known blogger, Bettany, has a personal stake in the issue.

She argues that part of the blame lies with the established media:

The mainstream popularization of trashy, trite, and slovenly written blogs like PerezHilton.com is giving bloggers a bad name.

For many people who aren’t exploring the intense array of intelligent and thought-provoking blogs on the web, Perez might be the only blog they read. And that is one of the great tragedies of the web.

This is exactly what leads many to claim that blogging isn’t journalism. Or to pronounce, as a senior academic said at last week’s ONA convention, “I hate blogs”.

This is like dismissing magazines because of the trashy magazines at the supermarket checkout. Blogging is a platform. Blogs are a form of media native to the web that shares some characteristics, such as an informal, personal and conversational tone.

But the nature of the content is up to the blogger. It can range from celebrity gossip to informed comment to an online journal.

It is time to stop making assumptions that all blogs are like Perez Hilton.

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Filed under: blogs, innovation, journalism, technology , , ,

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Alfred Hermida
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