For this month’s Carnival of Journalism, Michael Rosenblum asks if a good journalist can be a good capitalist? The question is timely, given the raft of new entrepreneurial programs at journalism schools. There has always been an entrepreneurial streak in journalism, typified in the freelance journalist who makes a living by pitching and selling their work to a range of clients. Journalists, by necessity, have to be entrepreneurial in finding

There is a seasonal theme to this month’s Carnival of Journalism, hosted by The Guardian Developer blog. Journalists are being asked when would be the best present from programmers and developers, and vice versa for developers. It is a key question as it focuses on the intersection of emerging communication technologies and journalistic norms and practices. The way journalists do what they do has always been affected by technology, from the

The wealth of multimedia or social media storytelling tools available can be bewildering for journalists. Often seasoned pros asked me, what is the one thing I should learn and add to my reporting toolkit? To my mind, that’s the right attitude but the wrong question.  Journalists need to be open to new ways of telling stories and engaging with audiences. But it is not about adding a new tool to

For this month’s Carnival of Journalism, host Andrew Pergam asked “What is the role of online video in the newsroom of the future?” Online video has been around for more than a decade but it has taken some time for journalists that video on the web is not the same as video on television. Best practices of online video are evolving. It is not just about giving all your reporters a Flip cam and asking

This month’s Carnival of Journalism asks what steps can be taken to increase the number of news sources. The question takes it cue from the Knight Foundation’s 15 recommendations on the news and information needs of communities. One clear way for journalism schools to contribute is by having students cover the city. Our students at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism already do this, as do many other j-schools. By doing

One of the key roles of the university has to foster critical thinking, graduating students who have the ability to ask the right questions and think through solutions to problems. For the revival of the Carnival of Journalism, David Cohn has asked the journalist/scholar bloggers taking part to consider the place of the university in the information ecosystem. Journalism schools are uniquely placed within the academic environment to play a leading

Making predictions ia always a daunting prospective. But that was the challenge posed by David Cohn for this month’s Carnival of Journalism. In order to avoid a stream of posts of how bad things may get for journalism in 2009, Cohn wanted us to be optimistic. At a time of newsroom cuts, falling revenues and an economic crisis, there are still reasons to be positive. At a time when the

The Carnival of Journalism is back and this time, it’s serious. Well, at least is might have some practical tips for newsrooms, thanks to our host this month, Will Sullivan, who asked: What are small, incremental steps one can make to fuel change in their media organization? Change is not a word that sits well in many newsrooms, above all in newspapers. After visiting a newspaper newsroom, one of my

This month’s Carnival of Journalism has come round early and is hosted by Doug Fisher. He asks: What changes will need to be made in national and international legal systems to help the digital age, and especially journalism in the digital age, flourish? This is not an issue that journalists and commentators often get into, leaving law to lawyers. But traditional legal definitions of copyright, libel and defamation are being

June’s Carnival of Journalism, a monthly collection of thoughts from the journalism blogosphere, focused on the issue of local. The question was whether journalism is better the more local it is. The range of responses shows this is a rich area for debate. I sat out the carnival as I was on honeymoon in Thailand. But one of the entries from Paul Bradshaw, arguing that online all journalism is potentially