Markmedia

how journalism works?

In an age where every thing we say and do is recorded and distributed as soon as it happens, it might be wise not to drink and then talk to the camera.

This journalist makes a number of mistakes. He resigns on-line, makes (what he later claims to be joking) references to cut and paste journalism and reveals his future plans.

It is interesting in many ways. As a reminder that publishing is instant, that not all publicity is good publicity and it opens a debate on the way journalists see what they do. All these aspects are worth discussing and disecting. Its the world we now live in.

Even the US Government blogs

The US government has a very useful collection of reference links.
Amongst them a list of blogs from the U.S. Government.

This could be of some use to journalists covering the US elections

Draft Blogger's Code of Conduct

Suggestions from April 2007 for a code of conduct for bloggers, designed to promote civility and prevent cyber-bullying. Includes many comments, and links to related sites and posts. From Tim O'Reilly, a book publisher and conference promoter involved in the Web 2.0 movement.

There is a wiki for those who wish to participate in the discussion.

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.

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.

wanna be a Blog Producer?

CNN söker nu en "blog producer". Åter ett bevis på att bloggandet börjar bli en integrerad del av mediaproduktionsapparaten. När kommer journalistutbildningar att integrera bloggandet i sina kurser? Kanske om tio år eller så. JMK har fortfarande ingen journalistikkurs som koncentrerar sig på ny media produktion.

CNN is looking for a "Blog Producer":

Producer will cover web-logs (blogs), pod-casts, and other internet-based forms of new media. The web producer will locate, research, and report on blogs and web sites that include news, politics, policy, commentary, and other information of value to our viewers. The results will be daily television segments reporting on this area of the media. This person will be responsible for producing both the editorial content and also the graphic and video elements necessary to develop each segment. This person will also report on-air as needed.

Saudis block blogger.com

Reporters Without Borders report that Saudi Aribia has  made  blogger.com inaccessible since 3 October, preventing Saudi bloggers from updating their blogs.

“Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that censors the Internet the most, but blog services had not until now been affected,” the press freedom organisation said. “The complete blocking of blogger.com, which is one of the biggest blog tools on the market, is extremely worrying. Only China had so far used such an extreme measure to censor the Internet.”

The Saudi authorities acknowledge blacklisting more than 400,000 websites. A very wide range of sites are affected, including political organisations, non-recognised Islamist movements and publications containing any kind of reference to sexuality.

The Saudi’s filtering system uses technology acquired from the US company Secure Computing.

Blogging making a difference in the Philippines: Thank you SIDA

Blogging has become a force to be reckoned with in the fight for democracy and against corruption in the Philippines. The latest massive push to remove President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for corruption and election-rigging has been largely driven by journalists and activists who have been denied the use of the traditional media by legal restraints from the Arroyo administration.
This is the first time a crisis of this kind has been fought on the information highway instead of the avenues of Manila and the traditional response of police and army has shown its self useless.

The Australian newspaper The Age describes it this way:

This revolution is all about control of information. The election-fixing allegations center on taped phone calls allegedly between the President and an electoral commissioner, Virgilo Garcilliano. When the allegations surfaced in early June, threats from the Arroyo administration stopped the mainstream media from publishing the contents because the calls had been illegally recorded.
This created an on-line blog bonanza...
The Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism was also crucial in the on-line campaign. The centre first aired the three-hour tape of the conversations, offering it as a download on its website in early June.

The lynch-pin of Filipino blogging is the  Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism and their blog "inside PCIJ". The blog and the use of interactive information dissemination is a direct result of a SIDA  [eng.] financed course called " The Electronic Research and Publishing programme", given by The Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, JMK, Stockholm University. [Yes, I teach the course with a colleague.]

When Yvonne Chua, training director for the Center, came to our course she new nothing about blogging. After a week she had grasped the political and journalistic implications and grappled with the technology. Before she left us she was convinced that blogging was important. When she got home it took some convincing on her part to get the organization on board, but they did and the results can now be seen influencing journalism and democratic development throughout Asia.

I am proud to have played a small part in this development.

 

 

NSA och blogosfären

Enligt en UPI artikel beskriver NSA  bloggare följande sätt:

"The bloggers are frustrated would-be editors, journalists, private detectives and a multitude of others craving recognition for their special knowledge in a wide variety of subjects and specialties."

Detta är ett problem. Lösningen?

"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, prodded by the NSA, is now trying to figure out how to vacuum clean these electronic-bulletin boards for coded messages in seemingly innocuous phrases. Blogs would greatly facilitate the coordination of terrorist acts at the same time in different parts of the world. The cyber Hoover would be a super google.com"

Antagligen samma vassa analytiker här som jobbade på WMD i Irak.

bloggers without borders

Om ni är intreserade av att höra röster från bloggare som postar trots hot ocg represalier kan ni ta er till Bloggers Without Boarders.
Organisationen presenterar sig så  här;

Bloggers without Borders is a citizen journalism hub, dedicated to raising conscience for, and about, events around the world. We use the tools and exposure of modern guerrilla journalism as a means to lend a hand in the creation of awareness and outbound information management.

Kolla också deras Filters and how to avoid them...
De använder sig av en antispårnings- och antiblokeringsmjukvara som kommer att distribureas i  en Ipod-version:
Lastly, the b19s.org software (which is based on Drupal) will soon be available in any of three brands: an iPod edition, a Unix installer, and rb19s. The iPod edition is suitable for quick downloading and transporting of a complete install. Anyone wishing to transport an install has a simple means of doing so. This includes all articles posted to the particular install. rb19s is a rsync based system, which syncs two installs, ideal for systems wishing to provide the content of a “master” server to a secondary install, behind a firewall for example.