NewsJack launches to let you remix, edit news websites. Not long after the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, a remarkable edition of The New York Times hit the streets with the massive headline, “Iraq War Ends.” It was a fake, part of a hoax engineered by the Yes Men. The spoof print edition was distributed in several cities. An accompanying website that looked very much like the Times’ was also launched.
“In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street,” the Yes Men later said. The whole thing took lots of people, lots of organization, and some cash. Now, thanks to a new website launching today by two people at the MIT Media Lab, you can create your own spoof version of the Times or any other news website in a matter of minutes. No Photoshop skills required.
Visitors to NewsJack can enter the URL of any site they’d like to hijack. Tags: NewsJack. Tips and tools to innovate with during election night coverage. In our world, there is no better story that reflects the power and value of good journalism than an election. Regardless of the medium, election stories can and should be as varied as investigative pieces, people profiles, contextual stories, and, because politicians are so colorful, stories of the weird. Put these under an umbrella of breaking news and see us do our thing. The midterm elections are just around the corner and they are more than promising a newsy season. By now many of us have established a general plan for election night coverage. But to help foster innovation and advancement in journalism, last’s week #wjchat , a weekly chat about Web journalism held through Twitter, had its first Elex Exchange where we shared ideas and tools to help with this year’s coverage.
Inspired by the chat ( transcript ), here’s a list showing how to take advantage of the latest technology to make election coverage more powerful and dynamic: CROWDMAP // crowdsource reporting + mapping. New online platform to allow freelancers to auction exclusive stories. Freelancers using Qluso will set a reserve price and time limit before uploading stories, which editors can then browse and bid for A new online app has been launched for freelancers looking to sell exclusive stories and ideas to news editors. Qluso, which was developed by Northern Irish technology start-up NewsRupt and goes live in beta on 4 October, will allow news editors to browse through stories submitted by freelancers and place bids to become the first to publish the material.
Freelancers using the service will set a reserve price and time limit before uploading their stories. The service says it will pay freelancers on the same day that stories are sold. The app will be free to use during the private beta period. From January, when it comes out of beta, editors will be able to sign up for free or premium accounts and Qluso will take a 15 per cent commission from every sale fee, Lyra McKee, co-founder of NewsRupt, told Journalism.co.uk.
Great advice on seeing news content as data. October 17, 2010 by Steve Buttry Most news stories are basically data in paragraph form. Each of the 5 W’s could just as easily be a field in a database. Structured as data, not simply as stories, “who” becomes more than a fact for a story; it relates this story to the other stories with the same “who.”Databases give news content more lasting value, by providing context and relationships. I don’t have a lot more to say about this right now. I just mention it because Michelle Minkoff makes similar points in a post about some data projects she worked on for the Los Angeles Times: We must understand our news content as data. I won’t elaborate, beyond encouraging you to read her post. It reminded me of a post by Dan Conover: The “Lack of a Vision” thing? For a further understanding of the value of data for journalism, I also recommend: Rivers of Data by Derek Willis (also linked and recommended by Minkoff).
Like this: Like Loading... New BBC guidelines incorporate social media, user-generated content. New edition of editorial guidelines incorporates BBC Online content and includes new advice on the use of social media and user-generated content The BBC's editorial guidelines now include advice for journalists on the use of social media and user-generated content, following today's publication of a new edition. The new edition also covers content at BBC Online, which previously came under separate guidelines. It updates the previous guidelines, published in 2005, incorporating social media and user generated content for the first time. According to a BBC Trust commentary on the guidelines, "the new edition takes account of editorial issues raised by technological developments such as mass audience voting by phone, email and text, and the availability of material from social media".
A review of the guidelines, commissioned by the trust, began last year when a new draft was drawn up by the BBC Executive in consultation with the trust's Editorial Standards Committee. What should journalists know about BlackBerry fights? - Blog - Committee to Protect Journalists. A Blackberry logo is prominently displayed in Ahmadabad, India. (AP) The discussions between Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, and governments such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and India continue to hit the headlines. In each case, disagreements center on providing customer communications to security and law enforcement services. The rumblings from these nations over monitoring powers aren't just limited to RIM: India has announced its intention to put the same pressure on Google (for Gmail), and Skype (for its IM and telephony services).
All of these devices and services have a reputation for security, and are therefore commonly used by journalists concerned they or their sources could be at risk of government or criminal surveillance. What should journalists working under these conditions make of these new developments? Will their online security be diminished? Judging from all the evidence, the answer depends on where you obtained your BlackBerry. Advancing the Story Social media on TV news. How do you go beyond reading tweets on the air to make social media an integral part of the newscast? CNN International’s Etan Horowitz is charged with making that happen daily.
“It used to be the reverse,” says Horowitz. “We were trying to put TV online; now we’re bringing interesting social media to air.” Horowitz says that TV producers need to do more than monitor social media, they have to “show” it. He offered a couple tools that can help stations visualize social media content: 1. 2. Horowitz suggests that stations could also do more with Skype to gather interviews and video from people who might add unique perpectives on stories that are difficult to get to otherwise. He gave an example of a World Cup fan who used his laptop and Skype to stream celebration video back to CNN, when the network was caught without a crew in Holland, following the the Dutch victory over Brazil. To get the information to air, Horowitz says you need the following: AP to Launch Online Rights/Protection/Measurement Clearinghouse - 2010-10-18 16:36:06.