Not such wicked leaks For the celebrated novelist and intellectual Umberto Eco, the Wikileaks affair or "Cablegate" not only shows up the hypocrisy that governs relations between states, citizens and the press, but also presages a return to more archaic forms of communication. The WikiLeaks affair has twofold value. On the one hand, it turns out to be a bogus scandal, a scandal that only appears to be a scandal against the backdrop of the hypocrisy governing relations between the state, the citizenry and the press. On the other hand, it heralds a sea change in international communication – and prefigures a regressive future of “crabwise” progress. Lebanon: Bloggers Support Tunisian Protests against “Arab Pinochet” This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011. Lebanese bloggers have joined the chorus of concern over the Tunisian riots that have thus far claimed 24 lives. Sympathy and support is extended to the Tunisian youth protesting the authoritarianism, corruption, and poor economic management of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, dubbed the “Arab Pinochet” by Lebanese blogger, the Angry Arab. The protests began after the self-immolation attempt of 24-year-old, Mohamed Bouazizi, in frustration at the country's high unemployment, soaring food prices and government corruption. The Arab world is following attentively Tunisia's worst internal crisis in decades, as many Arabs empathise with the desperation felt by the Tunisian protestors. Rita Chemaly wrote a powerful blog post in support of the protestors:
Journalists Become Trainers & Coaches for Local Communities PPF Media has been getting a lot of international attention lately for its hyperlocal news project in the Czech Republic that is built around Starbucks-style "news cafes" in local communities. CEO Roman Gallo provided an update Friday at the 2015 Newsroom Conference, and the project seems to be working. Thirteen weeks after launch in four Czech regions, circulation of the paid-for weeklies is growing, as it web traffic. And the cafes are quickly becoming a centre of community life, with meetings, concerts, dance lessons and other events organised for local residents. Editorial staff sit in the middle of the cafes, without walls or doors, allowing regular interaction with local residents.
Three ways to be an entrepreneurial journalist (via @Mediabistro ) Why is the future of journalism entrepreneurial? “Because it can be,” says Jeff Jarvis, and he’s right. news Looking for thinkpublic? We’re taking a pause, as our founding director Deborah is going on maternity leave from September 2012. We’ve learnt from many of our projects with new mums and children’s services, that starting a family can be like starting a business, extremely consuming in both time and energy. Which is why we are finishing off our current projects and pausing the work of the studio, we see this time as a chance to focus on a few initiatives, whilst feeding our imaginations. “I started thinkpublic when I was 23 and I had no idea what an impact it would create. thinkpublic has grown from strength to strength, I have been lucky to work with some amazing people on a diverse and exciting range of projects. Yet now is the time to do something different for a bit, the ultimate ‘social’ thing of starting a family!
Michael Koretzky: College Journalists Are Good at Consuming Multimedia but Bad at Making It. Why? Earlier this year, I judged a prestigious national contest that chose the best college newspaper website in the country. It was a tough decision. Usually, when a judge says he had trouble selecting a winner, all the entries were so damn good it was hard to tell the difference. But in this case, nearly all the entries were so damn boring it was hard to tell the difference. The contest I judged is SPJ's Mark of Excellence.
Tunisia: Can We Please Stop Talking About ?Twitter Revolutions? - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty ? 2011 While the tear gas was still hanging in the streets of Tunis, many pundits were quick to christen Tunisia’s revolution. Andrew Sullivan has asked (again) whether it’s a Twitter Revolution. Elizabeth Dickinson, among others, speculated in “Foreign Policy” that it might be a “WikiLeaks revolution.” Anonymous, the online activists who recently attacked targets perceived to be against WikiLeaks, claimed it as their own after their DDOS attacks on various government targets.
Dan Gillmor (via @couve) You may have noticed – you could hardly miss it – the blizzard of anniversary stories last month about the fall of Lehman Brothers, an event that helped spark last year's financial meltdown. The coverage reminded me that journalists failed to do their jobs before last year's crisis emerged, and have continued to fail since then. It also reminds me of a few pet peeves about the way traditional journalists operate. So here's a list of 22 things, not in any particular order, that I'd insist upon if I ran a news organization. 1. We would not run anniversary stories and commentary, except in the rarest of circumstances.