Regular visitors to the homepage BBC News website were in for a surprise on Monday as they fired up their browsers. The site has had a facelift and feels rejuvenated. Much of the navigation hasn’t changed but it is wider and uses white space so that stories have room to breathe. This is how editor Steve Herrmann described the changes: So our designers embarked on a mission that they have

As a journalist turned academic, I often received e-mails from publishers with book suggestions. The other day one dropped into my inbox for a textbook called Principles of Convergent Journalism from Oxford University Press. At first glance, it sounds like an ideal text for teaching students to work across media. That is, until it talks about “repurposing both print and broadcast content for the internet”. There are two chapters devoted

…My heart’s in Accra » BBC’s Richard Sambrook at Media Re:public Excellent write-up of Sambrook’s framework for citizen media (tags: BBC citizenjournalism media news)

The BBC News website is gearing up to unveil its new look which will include wider pages and bigger images, according to website editor Steve Herrmann. The current look dates back to 2003 and it is showing its age. After all, Internet time moves at a faster pace than regular time. But one of the most welcomed changes will be the use of Flash embedded video, rather than pop-ups in

Local news in the US reaches out to the ‘kids’ with Dance Party Friday, at least at Local 12 News in Cincinnati

The British comedy duo of Mitchell and Webb make fun of the current trend towards interactivity and user-generated content by broadcasters such as the BBC. The clip is from their BBC show, That Mitchell and Webb Look

The Vancouver-based participatory news service, NowPublic.com, has been getting a lot of media attention in Canada this past week. It is mentioned in an article on the Canwest News Service on the protests over Tibet. Co-founder Len Brody set out his goals for the site: Our job is to own the space and time between when an event happens and when it gets uploaded to the web and be at

This promotional video for the journalism school at Conestogac College in Ontario is a revelation. Lots of talk about print and producing a newspaper but no mention of this new-fangled thing called the interweb. Oh well, journalists don’t need to know about the Internet and how it is changing the profession. As Howard Owens commented, “It must still be 1988 in Canada.&#

Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Locked Up: Why Your Books Are No Longer Yours Many users are unhappy that e-book readers, such as the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle, restrict the sharing, borrowing and transferring of e-books. (tags: business online)

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star? – New York Times Hard to make a living as a blogger (tags: blogging blogs socialmedia writing)