The second keynote of the ISOJ was by Meredith Artley, vice president and managing editor, CNN.com She started by stressing the importance of journalism and showed dramatic images of the aftermath of the disaster in Japan. Like for other news organisations, Japan has proved a major draw for CNN. In the 10 days since the Japan quake on March 11, CNN had: 75 million average page views per day on PC

The second day of International Symposium on Online Journalism offered a refreshing look at international innovative initiatives. Harry Dugmore, MTN Chair of Media and Mobile Communications, Rhodes University (South Africa) started by providing an update to a project founded by the Knight News Challenge. in South Africa, almost 100% of families have access to cellphones, while broadband access is growing but slowly. While bandwidth is rising, the prices are prohibitive.

It’s almost time for the 11th International Symposium on Online Journalism at UT Austin, which kicks off on Friday 23 April. The event brings together professionals, academics and students to share experiences, research and ideas on journalism and its future. I’m honoured to be among those presenting a paper at the conference, Wikifying the CBC: Reimagining the remit of public service media (PDF), with one of my graduate students, Amanda

The set of guidelines about user-generated content produced by industry body, the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA), aims to help broadcasters get the most out of working with the audience. The guidelines, available as a PDF, cover familiar ground on concerns about quality of the content and potential legal issues. It acknowledges that: The most apparent benefit for broadcasters of using UGC is that it provides free access to material which

Amy Webb presented her very popular session on tech trends before an eager audience of journalists, hoping to find out what the future will bring. Webb explained how she had asked online what were the big trends for journalists. One of the main choices was mobile. But Webb said mobile was a generic term, just as you would say internet. She argued that journalists aren’t thinking of technology in a

In my latest piece for PBS Mediashift, I discuss how the mainstream media is incorporating user-generated content, drawing on research presented at the recent Future of Journalism conference.  Here’s an excerpt: The ability of anyone to play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and sharing news and information is seen as one of the big shifts in journalism over the past 10 years. But a growing

One of the research papers at the Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff analysed the attitudes of local journalists in the UK towards user-generated content. My colleague, Jane Singer, interviewed local journalists working for the Johnston Press to uncover their views on involving the public in the journalistic process. She found that local journalists see UGC as contributing to the journalism they produce. But material from the public was seen

I’m in Cardiff for the Future of Journalism conference, hosted by School of Journalism at Cardiff University. Over the next two days, academics from around the world will present research on topics as diverse as user-generated content, Twitter, journalism education and new business models. There are close to hundred presentations after a plenary session with speakers James Curran and Bettina Peters, which will be streamed live. There is also a

I’m very pleased to announce that UBC Graduate School of Journalism has been awarded a $15,000 grant to work with CBC Radio 3 to research and develop a Canadian music wiki website. The aim is to create a “Wikipedia” of Canadian music that will enable Canadians to share their passion and enthusiasm for music, collaborating together to create a rich, online resource. I’m excited to be supervising the partnership, with

Academic presentations dominate the second day of the International Online Journalism Symposium at UT Austin in Texas. The research papers cover a wide range of topics, but one topic that kept coming up was user-generated content, also described as citizen journalism and participatory journalism. Normally, I would have blogged the papers and highlighted some of the research. But my energy levels are low today so instead I recommend reading the