There’s a very funny satire on the concept of the news-paper by Amy Gahran over at Poynter. Here’s a snippet to give you a taste of it: “You mean you have to handle all this paper every day?” “No, I only paid for Thursdays, Sundays, and holidays.” “You paid for this?…” he frowned, shaking his head. “How do you search it?” “It’s not really searchable, but it’s scannable. See, you
PDF One of the points that Adrian Monck raises in his entry on online video is the issue of video specifically commissioned for the web. He points out that the BBC News website is “awash with audio and video material but rather modestly, it hides these jewels away.” But this material is essentially TV packages made available online. So there is next to nothing that has been specially commissioned, shot and
There is a flurry of discussion online about how established news organisations are offering video on their websites. The debate centres over how far can existing TV practices be adapted to the world of YouTube and short clips. Newspapers are rushing headlong into deals to offer video on their websites, but as Paul Bradshaw points out, “in all cases publishers seem to be making television – not video”. This may
There has been much written about how Reuters has a correspondent in Second Life, reporting on events in the virtual world. Now there is a news bulletin created using Second Life, reporting on events about Second Life. Called SLObserver, both the website and news cast is in French. It is remarkable how the virtual news cast resembles a real life news cast. There is an attractive female host, insets over
How do you reach a generation who plays video games and doesn’t read newspapers? Easy. Bring the news to them. This is what Nintendo and AP are doing in what PaidContent describes as “an interesting though not-a-game-changing deal.” Gamers who have snapped up Nintendo’s new Wii console will be able to read national and international news, sports, arts and entertainment, business, science/health and technology. In the words of Nintendo of
As a former BBC journalist now teaching multiplatform journalism in Canada, I am struck by the attitudes of students to new media. Some embrace the potential wholeheartedly, while others are more circumspect. Mindy McAdams highlights this issue in a post about the response to an earlier entry about getting a job in journalism. Some of the journalism students who commented on her post are harking back to the days of
A heads-up to everyone who is interested in the changes taking place in journalism. Harvard University’s Neiman Foundation for Journalism has released the winter 2006 issue of Neiman Reports, entitled “Goodbye Gutenberg.” There is a rich wealth of material on how the impact the internet is having on journalism. Having read just a couple of the articles, this struck me from Jon Palfreman’s piece: Before the Web, storytelling was platform
All credit to PBS’s Mark Glaser for his blog entry on Time’s Person of the Year. Time might have been all excited about making “You” its Person of the Year. But as Glaser points out, the magazine itself is doing little to involve “You” in its journalism. Glaser writes: “There’s a feel of show to this praising of Time’s audience, without actually giving them any real power to make change
The BBC has published the service licences that bind the controllers of the BBC’s eight TV channels, 16 radio services, its website, interactive service and digital education service. The licences are set by the BBC Trust, the new independent body responsible for governing the corporation, and come into effect at the start of 2007. The online service licence makes for interesting reading. The phrasing implies that the Trust sees the
Interesting read in the Washington Post on how US newspaper chain Gannett is trying to reinvent itself. From the article: “Losing readers and revenue to the Internet and other media, newspapers are struggling to stay relevant and even afloat. Gannett’s answer is radical. The chain’s papers are redirecting their newsrooms to focus on the Web first, paper second. Papers are slashing national and foreign coverage and beefing up “hyper-local,” street-by-street