Human Rights Watch: Prestigious Journalism Award. (New York) – Human Rights Watch multimedia features on Russia and Papua New Guinea have won prestigious awards in the field of broadcast journalism, a rare honor for a nongovernmental organization. The Peabody Awards aim to recognize “the best of the best” in broadcast, which this year included the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera English, and National Public Radio. Human Rights Watch was the only nongovernmental organization to receive a Peabody. The Russia feature, “Acting Up,” profiled a series of civil society activists with text, video, and portraits by The New Yorker staff photographer Platon. It was published by The New Yorker in the United States, and by newspapers, magazines, and websites in 20 other countries worldwide. The Papua New Guinea feature, “Gold’s Costly Dividend,” accompanied a Human Rights Watch report on abuses against people living near the Porgera gold mine. Hilarious Spoof: Here's How Headlines Are Created [VIRAL VIDEO]
Exit music: David Cho on leaving The Awl, joining Grantland, and building a business from high-quality writing. The world of online publishing, or at least upstart online publishing, got a surprise on Wednesday when David Cho, publisher of The Awl, announced he was leaving the 2-year-old site he founded with Choire Sicha and Alex Balk. He’s packing his bags (literally) and heading west to join Bill Simmons and Team Grantland, where he’ll be director of business development. We (probably like a good number of you) are fans of The Awl here at The Lab, and have been following its growth from “scrappy” three-man circus to money-making writing franchise, complete with its own spinoffs: Splitsider and The Hairpin.
I reached out to Cho, busy in the dreadful/necessary task of packing, to talk about his time with The Awl, connecting with audiences, and the new economics of writing online. “The Awl as it stands is a very good business. So if everything’s (and everyone’s) clicking, why’s he leaving? It’s a bit like Three Men and a Baby, yes, but understandable. Four New York Times Journalists Are Missing in Libya. UPIU Mentors, Publishes Student Journalists Around the Globe. Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by the USC Annenberg nine-month M.A. in Specialized Journalism. USC’s highly customized degree programs are tailored to the experienced journalist and gifted amateur. Learn more about how USC Annenberg is immersed in tomorrow.
Suleiman Abdullahi was recently an eyewitness to the birth of the world’s newest nation. In early January, the 20-year-old Kenyan journalism student flew to Juba, Sudan, to cover the massive referendum responsible for the creation and upcoming independence of South Sudan. As Abdullahi wrote, he arrived in the prospective nation’s capital city with a travel visa, a press pass, a story budget, and a 48-hour window to interview, observe, and report upon “the history that was about to be made.”
By the end of his first day, he was under arrest. Abdullahi was part of a two-man student reporting crew hired by UPIU, a student journalism project run by the United Press International news service. More than a platform Back in Juba. Twitter Journalism ? How To Verify A Tweet. Traditional Media Abandon Tunisia to Twitter, YouTube. The shortcomings of the so-called mainstream media have become something of a stale trope.
Traditional media does some things well, other things poorly, vice-versa for blogging and other social media. But the neglect of the situation in Tunisia by the media in general, and American media in particular, is beyond the pale. Since a young Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire on December 17 to protest conditions in his North African country, and the country went up in flames, most Western, and all American media, has been unearthly silent. Untitled from Slim Amamou on Vimeo. #sidibouzid Only yesterday a survey of the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and Miami Herald showed absolutely no front-page coverage of Tunisia.
Meanwhile, the social web has lit up with the topic. Instead, those interested have turned to Twitter accounts like that of @wedaddy, a Mauritanian in Boston and journalist @monaeltahawy. Slim.
Ecuadoran sports reporter beaten, threatened. New York, December 7, 2010--Ecuadoran authorities must fully investigate a vicious attack against sports reporter Guido Manolo Campaña, who was abducted, beaten, and threatened while on assignment in the northern coastal province of Esmeraldas, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Two gunmen seized Campaña, a reporter for the Guayaquil-based daily El Universo, from a bus that was en route to Esmeraldas, northwest of the capital, Quito, at about 1 p.m., the newspaper reported. Campaña was investigating allegations that a professional soccer player was using another person's identity, according to El Universo. The gunmen blindfolded and bound Campaña, and drove him to a house in an unknown location, where four captors beat, threatened, and interrogated him about his assignment, El Universo said.
When Campaña was allowed to answer a call from the paper at around 2:30 p.m., he instructed an editor not to publish his reporting on the identity case, El Universo said. This Week in Review: An objectivity object lesson, a paywall is panned, and finding the blogger’s voice. Web Shames Magazine for Plagiarizing Blogger's Article. US TV anchorman Keith Olbermann suspended for donating to Democrats | World news. Keith Olbermann, host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, has been suspended indefinitely by MSNBC. Photograph: Fred Prouser/Reuters A prominent US television anchorman, Keith Olbermann, was suspended today for making donations to three Democratic candidates in this week's midterm elections, in breach of company rules.
US journalistic ethics are extremely strict, barring media employees from donating to political parties or any other political involvement that might cause a conflict of interest. Although Rupert Murdoch contributed $2m (£1.23m) to the Republicans and commentators from his Fox News network also made donations, papers such as the New York Times, National Public Radio and television channels such as CNN and MSNBC seek to maintain strict neutrality. Olbermann confirmed in a statement to the Politico website that he had given each of the candidates $2,400, the legal maximum for donations. The Polish American World Newspaper Closes. An innovative Moroccan magazine closes: Shutting up shop.
Press Freedom. Tools, Apps. Journos & SM. Journalism in the Age of Data: A Video Report on Data Visualization by Geoff McGhee.