in Journalism and Mass Communication
Nieman Journalism Lab | The Icelandic parliament has voted unanimously to create what are intended to be the strongest media freedom laws in the world. And Iceland intends these measures to have international impact, by creating a safe haven for publishers worldwide — and their servers.
The proposal, known as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, requires changes to Icelandic law to strengthen journalistic source protection, freedom of speech, and government transparency… READ IT
Knight News Challenge | $2.74 Million Awarded to 12 Grantees Who Will Impact Future of News
Cambridge, Mass. (June 16, 2010) – Twelve media innovation projects have been named the 2010 winners of the Knight News Challenge, a contest that funds ideas that use digital technology to inform specific geographic communities.
The winners will receive $2.74 million as part of the fourth round of the five-year international contest.
Among the winning ideas are two easy-to-use tool sets for journalists and bloggers to illustrate raw data visually – one of the most promising new areas of digital journalism. One project (Tilemapping) was field-tested in Haiti, to map where aid was needed after the earthquake… READ IT
Joining in online newspapers’ message forums increases participants’ perception that they understand their local communities better, according to a new research study in the Spring 2010 edition of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. However, that participation and accompanying sense of community understanding is not related to their getting out and taking part in real-world community activities.
These findings are based on a survey of 538 participants in message forums at the online sites associated with 80 U.S. newspapers. Such forums generally consist of a portion of the website where visitors can post comments organized into common message “threads,” and can be found at about a third of all U.S. online newspapers. [Read more...]
By Kelli Burns, University of South Florida
Today’s tech-savvy student generation is actively participating in social networking and other online communities, so most students not only understand how to use Web 2.0 teaching tools, they thrive in the environment when Web communication solutions are integrated in the classroom.—K. Driscoll, 2007, p. 10
Social media tools can enrich a research methods class by providing students with a way to collect data, share research, and monitor online conversations. At the beginning of the course, students create their own blogs using WordPress and then throughout the course, use the blogs to post reports, photos, videos, and podcasts. The five social media assignments that have been assigned in this course are described below. These assignments include (1) a social media monitoring project which asks students to monitor social media sites for conversations about a client; (2) an ethnography project where students collect data through photographs that are posted to a photo-sharing site; (3) an interview project where student create MP3s of their interviews and upload them to their blogs as podcasts; (4) a focus group blog project where students collect data on a blog over several days; and (5) a survey project requiring students to create a video and an online survey. [Read more...]
On Monday, June 7th, the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) and I sent a statement to the AEJMC membership. Within hours, the blogosphere was alive with comments concerning our statement. Many of the responses were against the statement. While we certainly expected criticism, we were stymied by the volume, tone, and accusations. As members of AEJMC, the PAC and I are staunch advocates for journalism and mass communication and do not represent any political entity or side. It was not our intention to categorize Obama’s presidency as a failure or to offend anyone by insensitivity in the statement. In fact, it grieves me to think that we may have given that impression to any AEJMC member, let alone an entire division or commission.
The PAC and I present the following as background on how we arrived at the statement released on June 7 along with some analysis about ways we think the process can be improved: [Read more...]
By Jake Batsell, Southern Methodist University
The Destination Web is losing ground to the Social Web. Fewer people are using home pages and bookmarks to find their news on the Web – instead, news finds them through shared links on Facebook, link-shortened URLs on Twitter, or “like” buttons on scores of social media sites. For the modern journalist, that prized front-page clip or lead story on the 10 p.m. news may escape the notice of the growing legions of readers who get their news primarily online.
So, how can journalism students make sure their work gets noticed on the Web? By mastering the art of the “push post.” I require my Digital Journalism students to push news stories out on social media sites or comment forums once per week, which counts for 10 percent of their overall grade. With each push post, students build their personal brands by promoting their own journalistic work or that of their classmates. [Read more...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | In late May, President Barack Obama took the podium in front of the White House press corps in his first full, open-ended news conference in 10 months, a gap that exceeds the record set by his predecessor.
Obama’s lack of presidential press conferences and his general lack of transparency and accessibility to journalists during his administration are in sharp contrast to the platform on which he ran for president in 2008. During that campaign, Obama pledged a new era of openness.
Even the most logical of venues for answering questions from the press seem to be off-limits. In mid-May after he signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act-a new law requiring the State Department to identify governments that restrict press freedoms-he refused to answer questions from reporters. “I’m not doing a press conference today,” he announced, according to a Reuters news story. And when he does allow reporters’ questions, attempts are made to control the proceeding. Last year the Wall Street Journal criticized the administration’s pre-screening of reporters who would be allowed to ask questions of the president. [Read more...]
