Here are the slides from the presentation by Jan-Hinrik Schmidt of the Hans Bedrow Institut at the Neo-journalism conference in Brussels. The research highlights how journalists and the public consider participation. It shows that in many aspects, both share the same views. But there are also some areas of incongruence. Journalists and participatory media from jpub

In my recent Couchiching Conversation in Toronto, I hoped to spark a discussion on how social media is reshaping how our basic human need for news. We are immersed in media today, both from established media outlets and from each other. The amount of material shared on social media is astounding. A hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second, 140 million daily messages are sent on Twitter and 80

The British Council has posted a wonderful video on the production of an issue of The Times during the Blitz in the 1940s. The film, called Morning Paper, follows the different stages of the process, from the daily editorial conference to the printing presses. “Britons are inveterate newspaper readers,” says the presenter. “The morning survey of events at home and aboard is for them almost a ritual.” Thanks to Richard Sambrook

At ISOJ, John White, deputy editor for online, Winnipeg Free Press, Canada, outlined the paper’s News Café. A year ago, the Free Press created the café downtown, a space co-managed by a news organisation with a journalist in residence. Part of the reason was that the paper itself moved out of town to an industrial park. But another reason was to broaden the audience for the paper, which is mostly 55 plus.

The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, outlined the new context for journalism when he recently received the Goldsmith career award for excellence in journalism, one of America’s most prestigious accolades. In his keynote address, Rusbridger made the case for open journalism, arguing that “open is best” in all areas of journalism. His talk at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy starts about 47 minutes into the

On February 16, John Paton, CEO of New York based Digital First, spoke in Toronto at an event hosted by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. I had planned to put together a Storify of the event, but my friend Saleem Khan got there first. Here’s his round-up of the talk and subsequent question and answer session. [View the story “@JXPaton on the future of newspapers at the #CJFForum” on Storify

In a column, Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton asked if the newspaper was innovating too fast. Pexton noted how “hardly a week goes by without the Web site or newspaper launching some feature, or a venture to attract more revenue, or a blog, or a social media innovation.” He later added, “I’m wondering, and readers are too, whether there’s just a bit too much innovation, too fast.” In response, the

Here is a brief write-up of some of the main points from my talk at the Screen Futures conference in Australia on the promise and practice of participatory journalism. The talk was based on findings in my co-authored book, Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers, into how journalists are thinking about their relationship with the people formerly known as the audience. Comments on stories have become a familiar feature on

There were two significant developments in the media in Canada last week. The Huffington Post crossed the 49th parallel to set up Huff Post Canada and one of the largest newspaper groups, the PostMedia Network, dipped its toes into paywalls. In my first post for the HuffPo, I discuss the metered model being tried out by PostMedia at two of its newspapers. In the post, I take issue with the

An interesting project that seeks to help journalists and editors connect with each other has just launched in Canada. MediaCooler.com is the brainchild of my friend, Alison Yesilcimen. I’ve been following the development of the service since September last year. I’ve had long conversations with Alison about it, providing feedback and trying out the alpha site. MediaCooler aims to be a marketplace for media.  In an e-mail, Alison said that she “always