Markmedia

UK Gov wants to increase costs of FOI requests

I have been having a look at the Campaign for Freedom of Information site and see that there is push to have an early day motion on the threat to increase dramatically the cost of Freedom of Information requests:

The motion which the Campaign has helped to co-ordinate, follows the publication in The Sunday Times of a leaked memo indicating that the Government is considering making it substantially easier for authorities to refuse requests on costs grounds and/or introducing new charges for information under the Act. The result would be either to deter significant numbers of requests under the Act or to allow authorities to refuse large numbers of requests which currently have to be answered.

The motion: Early Day Motion No.2699 Freedom of Information   has been signed to date by 112 MP:s.

Has your local MP signed? If not why not? What do they not want us to know? 

theyworkforyou.com will let you see what your local MP has or has not signed, and a whole lot more besides.

Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts

Podcasting science has taken off in recent times and is an under-used resource for journalists.
There are number of medical organizations and institutes that have created sites [here hear] featuring podcasts.
Try for example Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts.
Started in October 2005, each podcast lasts from five to seven minutes and features a “lively discussion of the week’s medical news and how it may affect you.” Past topics have dealt with the risks of not immunizing children, the use of fish oil in people who’ve had a heart attack, and drug coated stents.

See to it that your health reporters have it as an RSS feed.

Finding "lost" people - no not the TV series

Here is a nice little site that list the US Federal agencies and private organizations who assist individuals in locating persons of unknown whereabouts. Could be useful for journalists trying to locate sources.

Sites include:
Military Locator Service (can help you to locate active, reserve, and retired Department of Defense (DOD) military personnel)
Army | Navy | Air Force | Marine Corps | Coast Guard |
<Locating Private Individuals |
IRS | SSA | Salvation Army  Family Tracing Service since 1885. The service is designed to help people reestablish contact with close relatives they may have lost touch with a few years ago or many years ago. The service is available in many of the 100 countries where the Salvation Army is located.)
Department of State|


[The Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits Federal agencies from providingthe home addresses or telephone numbers of individuals without their written permission. Keep this in mind beforebeginning your search. In most cases, the agency or organizationwill only agree to let the person know you are trying tolocate them. They may also agree to forward a letter written by you to the person that you are trying to locate.]

Compleat works of Charles Darwin

This site contains every Darwin publication as well as many of his handwritten manuscripts. All told there are more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published  and the largest manuscript  catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from   reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries,  descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important  works for  understanding Darwin's context. Free audio mp3 versions of his works are also available.

Googleblog

I know, most of you allready have this on your bookmark/rss list but it never hurts to repeat and remind.
Google has a number of blogs on (Google owned - see) blogspot. One of the most usefull is the official general blog.

Recent  postings on Google Maps for mobile devices and a new U.S. Election Guide in Google Earth. which could be of use in reporting the comming US elections.

virtually news

Its starting:
In one of Vince's postings he says:

Once virtual worlds become markets the model for marketing, advertising and retail promotion will have to change from the current 2-D e-commerce model we have on the web to a combination of automated and mediated bodiless real-life interactions.

Now Reuters have started to do just that.
Adam Pasick, a Reuters’ media correspondent based in London, will serve as the news organization’s first virtual bureau chief in Second Life. He’ll be using a personal avatar, or animated character, and will be known as “Adam Reuters,” in keeping with the game’s naming system.

Starting virtual news agencies and/or newspapers in the digisphere will be a money making enterprise if handled with care and if informed by a real understanding of the informational needs of the citizenry of the virtual worlds.
Let the games begin :-)

go digital or die (again)

An interesting report [pdf version] from Deutsche Bank Research aimed at investors has the following points to make:

• Innovative technologies are changing the way the media industry operates.
• New electronic offers improve contact between media makers and media consumers.
• Despite personalization of programming, advertising will not be crowded out.
• Brand recognition will attract additional customers and foster further growth.

Nothing new here to close followers of the changing face of media markets, but worth looking at.
It may be that the pressure on media outlets to seriously go digital will come from savvy investors rather than from the journalistic leadership within the industry itself.

Thanks for the tip Eamon

the disruptive power of blogs

In the latest discussion about blogs and their part in the downfall of a Swedish minister [ here, here, here and here ] a side issue caught my attention.

The new Swedish foreign minister - Carl Bildt (a blogger himself) - said in an interview that he could name a number of journalists who had themselves illegally hired household services (the initial reason for the scandal). This can be seen as a threat to journalists. You out us and we will out you.
This got me thinking about the relationship between blogs, journalists and the people they cover.

There is a balance of terror between journalists and their sources. They both have secrets to reveal about each other and there is often (all too often) an unspoken agreement on mutual regard for each others closeted skeletons.
But now the blogosphere butts in. Here there are no gentleman's agreements. No signing of treaties. Non-proliferation is an anathema to bloggers. All must out!
And suddenly things begin to change. Secrets are no longer mutually assured. So the threat from the Sources becomes: follow up on what bloggers dig up and we will out you!

So blogs destabilize the status quo. Shake things up. Make things uncomfortable. Disrupt the balance of (media) power. Of course there will be ethical problems to be faced. It is not always right to publish everything. But on the whole this can only be good for society and the democratic process in general.

Borelius, bloggandet och medborgarjournalistik

Maria Borelius avgång tas nu som intäkt för bloggandets genomslag som nyhetsmedium och politisk maktfaktor.
Jag diskuterade detta med Vincent Maher tidigare idag. Vince har skrivit mycket om medborgarjournalistik och var initivtagaren till afrikas första bloggkonferens i september i år. Utifrån diskussionen skrev vi ett gemensamt blogginlägg kring detta. (Engelsk version)

På inlägget Citizen Journalism fungerar skriver Magnus Ljungkvist:

Men “citizen journalism” eller medborgarjournalistik fungerar. Det tror jag att jag vågar konstatera idag. Bloggosfären kan erbjuda både snabbheten och fördjupningen. Dessutom har vi det väl förspänt i Sverige med den fantastiska offentlighetsprincipen som gör att det snabbt går att hitta viktig information hos våra myndigheter även utan presskort. Och om jag var tveksam tidigare så tror jag att bloggen, eller vad det här kommer kallas om tio år, kommer vara ett etablerat medium i framtiden. Och det vi medborgarjournalister kanske främst kan erbjuda är en granskning av den maktsfär som de etablerade medierna utgör.

Utifrån det tor jag att följande punkter tål att tänkas på:

1: Mycket av det som kallas medborgarjournalistik är resultatet av ett ideologiskt/politiskt ställningstagande. Denna drivkraft gör att en enveten tragglande genom offentliga dokument känns både motiverat, motiverande och givande. Så var fallet under Rathergate.
Man kan säga att några av de bästa avslöjanden i blogosfären är sprungna ur bristande objektivitet.

2. Offentlighetsprincipen är en nyckel till ett demokratiskt samhälle. Denna tillgång till information bör vara den samma vare sig man kallar sig journalist eller medborgare. Alla försök till inskränkningar av denna offentlighet är till men för demokratin.

3. Att de etablerade medierna inte letade efter, eller hittade, informationen som Magnus Ljungkvist tog fram kan härledas till några möjligheter (det finns naturligtvis fler än dessa):

• bristande personligt intresse eller journalistisk fantasi från de etablerade mediernas journalister
• bristande resurser på redaktionerna - brist på tid, brist på kunskap, brist på ledarskap mm
• egenintresse; I en intervju med Dan Josefsson på Ljungkvists blogg kan vi läsa följande:

Mt: Tror du att det har påverkat journalisternas bevakning av Boreliusaffären?

DJ: Njae, man skulle kunna tro det och jag är övertygad om att det har påverkat tidigare. Till exempel är jag helt övertygad om att mediernas positiva rapportering av avdraget för hushållsnära tjänster beror på att det är många inom journalistkåren som känner att de skulle gynnas av förslaget. Frågan har blivit uppblåst något enormt just därför att många journalister kan identifiera sig. Jag vet ju att när rapport skulle göra en granskning av svartjobbsmarknaden för några år sedan så hade man svårt att hitta någon som som ville göra jobbet eftersom “det var ett jävla skit att hålla på att peta i det”.

4. Ibland så krävs det en hängiven bloggare för att tvinga journalister till att ta upp ämnen de skulle hellre ignorera.

5. Bloggare kan inte göra detta ensamma. Det visar sig gång efter annan att det krävs upptagning och en uppföljning från de etablerade medier för att verkligen får en samhällsvid genomslagskraft.

6. Ovilligheten från medierna att erkänna Magnus som ursprungskälla till mycket av Boreliusaffären visar på en onödig genans från deras sida. Det finns en ohälsosam vi-och-dom känsla i samröre med blogosfären. Och en lika ohälsosam misstänksamhet från blogosfären mot traditionella medier.
Det är inte antingen eller som gäller. Der är både-och.
Sammarbete. Cooperation not competition.

Digital Freedom Network

Under the banner of “Advancing freedom worldwide through information and technology”, the Digital Freedom Network is primarily concerned with providing the general public with information about current events around the world that may impinge on a variety of individual freedoms, particularly
in the realm of journalism and related activities.
One of the highlights of their site is the “Literature of Freedom” area, where visitors can learn about different works that have been banned in countries such as Cuba, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.
“The Frontline” focuses on those individuals who have been placed in prison for expressing their thoughts and opinions freely.

And more.