Professionalism Archive

  • From cooperation to crowd-funding: The case of Port Talbot

    From cooperation to crowd-funding: The case of Port Talbot

    Report by Alex Klaushofer. Its bleak industrial landscape was the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, with its population of diverse life-forms evolving new ways of being in the struggle for survival. And now, Port Talbot’s bleak media landscape is … You get the idea. While on the one hand, Port Talbot is the perfect [...]

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  • Social media platforms get canny with copyright

    Social media platforms get canny with copyright

    Guest post by Mike Holderness. What happens when a journalist decides to share some of their work with the world though one of those “social media” websites? A headache, first: if you want to be sure of retaining the rights that attend copyright, you’re enjoined to read some dense legalese. The owners of the platforms [...]

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  • Under the spotlight: Citizen journalism site Blottr

    Under the spotlight: Citizen journalism site Blottr

    Report by Alex Klaushofer. Since launching a little over a year ago, Blottr, or ‘the people powered news service’, has been growing exponentially. With regional sites covering eight UK cities including London and Leeds, Blottr has recently expanded overseas, launching sites in France and Germany. Its traffic is impressive – 1.6 million unique users a [...]

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  • Leveson v. the moguls – can the lawyer who let Ken Dodd slip, outwit Murdoch?

    Leveson v. the moguls – can the lawyer who let Ken Dodd slip, outwit Murdoch?

    Review by Tim Dawson. The British press has rarely been in such a fix.  During two weeks in July, apparently unshakeable pillars crumbled to dust.  News International was humbled, the company’s BSkyB deal collapsed, the News Of The World closed and several senior officers of the Metropolitan Police resigned. Buffeted by its own proximity to the [...]

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  • New media manners – the case against digital rudeness

    New media manners – the case against digital rudeness

    Comment by Alex Klaushofer. In keeping with the back-to-school feel of the week, today’s post is about a little-discussed aspect of journalism in the digital age – the rise of a new form of rudeness, and the concomitant importance of good manners. I’m not talking about the negative effects of new technology on everyday behaviour, [...]

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  • Back to the future with Huffington Post UK

    Back to the future with Huffington Post UK

    Comment by Alex Klaushofer. The much-heralded Huffington Post UK last week appeared amid a fanfare as quiet as, well, the one that greets a New Model Journalism launch. Even before the announcement of the death of the News of the World stole its thunder, the response on Twitter (#Huffpouk) consisted of a few cheerfully self-promoting [...]

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  • Like a phoenix from liquidation – mag experiments with partnership model

    Like a phoenix from liquidation – mag experiments with partnership model

    Case study by Alex Klaushofer. When the numbers fail to add up, the publishers of most small magazines take the simple, expeditious step of simply folding the thing. But when weekly regeneration magazine New Start was deemed no longer viable, it embarked on a new direction which could point the way for other, similar publications. [...]

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  • Sex, death and celebrity – the other enemies of quality journalism

    Sex, death and celebrity – the other enemies of quality journalism

    Comment by Alex Klaushofer. It’s one of those stories behind the story – the fact that alongside the well-worn narrative about the crisis in financing journalism runs another tale of a cultural shift which, over the past decade, has led to the British media becoming less and less receptive to serious reporting. In the interview [...]

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  • New website wages war on churnalism

    New website wages war on churnalism

    By Alex Klaushofer. Today sees the launch of Churnalism.com, a website aimed at discouraging the practice of recycling press releases instead of researching original stories. Created by the Media Standards Trust, the site invites churnalism-spotters to paste a press release into a box which is then compared, via a constantly updated database, with news articles [...]

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  • Jury out on Twitter- consultation about court reporting launched

    Jury out on Twitter- consultation about court reporting launched

    A consultation on the use of Twitter in court reporting has been launched this week. The consultation is primarily concerned with the risk of prejudice to a case posed by live reporting from court. ‘The use of live, text‐based communications from court may fuel the potential for jurors, whether accidentally or otherwise, to encounter prejudicial [...]

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