Jas Grieve @ City

Podcast Tutorial

2007-11-15T02:31:00.000-08:00

This tutorial succinctly explains how to subscribe to a podcast on iTunes. It doesn't labour the point, illustrating just how easy it is to do. The tutorial has a very personal tone, and appears to be have produced for the benefit of one person, as the instructions are specific. This tutorial cuts all the superfluous waffle of many, and makes good viewing.

OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism

2007-11-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

Outfoxed isn’t a new film. It was released around the time of the last US presidential election, but seems to be just as relevant in the run up to the next one.

It is a documentary looking at the biased views and tactics of Fox News, all the while repeating its own motto “Fair and Balanced”, which becomes more and more ridiculous as the film continues.

With its provocative title, it’s not a surprise to find it is very much in the vein of Michael Moore’s crusading leftist narratives, and covers a lot of information from its own point of view, but doesn’t seem to seek out a reply from people with different perspectives. For this reason, it is likely to give ammunition to people who already held the view that Fox News broadcasts lousy and even damaging ‘journalism’, but is likely to irritate anyone who has the opposite view.

It begins with a look at the bigger picture, charting the expansion and current status of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, revealing some shocking statistics – such as his media empire potentially has an audience of three quarters of the world’s population.

The film then becomes essentially a selection of interviews interspersed with real Fox News footage. The interviews are conducted with a range of people, most interesting are former Fox employees who became disheartened and shocked by the network’s approach.

Some of the facts presented are alarming, such as memos from sources high up in the company telling employees the news agenda for the day, then giving strong opinions about what angle these should be covered from. However, some of the points raised are pure speculation – for example, the part where it is considered that Sean Hannity might be put on TV as the good-looking, assertive Republican, whilst Alan Colmes is a funny-looking, submissive Democrat.

However, the actual clips of Fox News used to illustrate the movie’s points are its strength. It is easy to forget you are watching footage of an actual news channel, as clips of Bill O’Reilly ‘interviewing’ guests degenerates into farce.

The point of this documentary is not to point out that Fox News is a Conservative news network, but that it is wrong to voice these opinions whilst re-assuring the viewer it is unbiased. In this goal, its wealth of evidence seems to back it up. However, to make it more viewer-friendly, it would have benefited from being more ‘Fair and Balanced’ itself.

Overall, this film is a must-see to look at how journalism shouldn’t be done.

PCC Code of Practice

2007-10-25T03:06:00.000-07:00

NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE PUBLISHING IN THE U.K.

Editors’ Code of Practice

This is the newspaper and periodical industry’s Code of Practice. It is framed and revised by the Editors’ Code Committee made up of independent editors of national, regional and local newspapers and magazines. The Press Complaints Commission, which has a majority of lay members, is charged with enforcing the Code, using it to adjudicate complaints. It was ratified by the PCC on the 1 August 2007. Clauses marked* are covered by exceptions relating to the public interest.

The Code

All members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional standards. The Code, which includes this preamble and the public interest exceptions below, sets the benchmark for those ethical standards, protecting both the rights of the individual and the public's right to know. It is the cornerstone of the system of selfregulation to which the industry has made a binding commitment.

It is essential that an agreed code be honoured not only to the letter but in the full spirit. It should not be interpreted so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual, nor so broadly that it constitutes an unnecessary interference with freedom of expression or prevents publication in the public interest.

It is the responsibility of editors and publishers to apply the Code to editorial material in both printed and online versions of publications. They should take care to ensure it is observed rigorously by all editorial staff and external contributors, including non-journalists.

Editors should co-operate swiftly with the PCC in the resolution of complaints. Any publication judged to have breached the Code must print the adjudication in full and with due prominence, including headline reference to the PCC.

Accuracy

Opportunity to reply

* Privacy

* Harassment

Intrusion into grief or shock

* Children

* Children in sex cases

The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.

In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child -

* Hospitals

* Reporting of Crime

* Clandestine devices and subterfuge

Victims of sexual assault

Discrimination

Financial journalism

Confidential sources

Witness payments in criminal trials

* Payment to criminals

The public interest

There may be exceptions to the clauses marked * where they can be demonstrated to be in the public interest.

The public interest includes, but is not confined to:

There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.

Whenever the public interest is invoked, the PCC will require editors to demonstrate fully how the public interest was served.

The PCC will consider the extent to which material is already in the public domain, or will become so.

In cases involving children under 16, editors must demonstrate an exceptional public interest to over-ride the normally paramount interest of the child.

Will Unlimited journalism be the Guardian of its future?

2007-10-18T03:46:00.001-07:00

Online journalism is becoming more important in the reporting of both serious and soft news. One of the main areas of this is in blogging, where anyone can set up a website without prior web or journalistic knowledge, and add their own reports or opinions instantly.

There is big money in this business, too.

This week, American radio and TV giant CBS paid $10m for the 10-month old Dotspotter. It is a celebrity blog, one of many to emerge after the unprecedented explosion of gossip giant Perez Hilton. The latter, based in Hollywood and its self-confessed "Most-Hated Web Site", gets up to 4,750,000 visitors a day.

CBS's takeover follows many in recent times, including the high profile purchase of MySpace for $580m in 2005 by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and Google's 2006 $2bn takeover of YouTube.

Sites like Dotspotter, YouTube and MySpace generating interest and big-money offers from media giants shows the new players' pulling powers when it comes to audiences. Searching Lexis Nexis even lets you narrow your results to show blog posts and web-based publications now.

With the rise in multimedia journalism, there has been much interest generated in amateur blogs, podcasts and vodcasts in recent times, as well. These have come into their own where hard news is concerned - most recently, for example, there was a vacuum of news coming out of Burma during the political protests there. Some of the only information emerging from the country was in the form of amateur videos hosted on sites such as YouTube.

However, I don't think that professional journalists should see this as threatening.

Many blogs which were begun during the time that suddenly became 'trendy' were just opinion pieces. Although these were an interesting insight into the voices of 'normal' people, many didn't stand up to the test of time and have since had their readership drop away.

And although anyone can make a podcast, the iTunes chart in the podcast store showed that it was already established celebrities like Ricky Gervais and Chris Moyles who were topping the charts.

Although the internet is a new medium for information distribution, it appears to have the same old values as the physical media.

People rely on the tried and tested sources to get reliable news - the BBC, Guardian Unlimited, Times Online. These places are still the big employers of their own correspondents, and seem more committed to contemporaneous, ambitious journalism than ever.