Do the punters trust online news?

Well, yes in fact, with yet another study which should stop the endless journalists v. bloggers stoush. Research by TNS, marketing research specialists, shows people around the world  trust the information they get from online news—roughly to the same degree as news from television and information from friends. It also showed private (those not written [...]

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Are we wasting time and resources on online video?

I  love this post, from Bournemouth journalist and sub, on making online news sites more relevant and to a large degree profitable. Our  blogger admits that it seems heresy to say: Are we wasting time and resources pumping online news sites with video content?
To a certain extent I would say, yes. Video is an important [...]

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Developing multimedia proficiency

My Twitter is alive with Tweets on the fears of freelance journalists with News Ltd’s ‘National Features Initiative’. Aside from the centralising of a lot of content (and jobs it seems), it will also involve contributors ramping up their multimedia content. It seems journalists will now be expected to provide not only pics, but video [...]

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Romanticising print journalism

I was treated last night to a preview of the new journalism thriller, State of Play, starring Russell Crowe. It is actually quite a good film despite the plethora of free tickets (clearly if I got one) and the casting of Crowe. It presents a number of interesting issues worthy of further consideration. Warning minor [...]

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What skills are most important for an online journalist?

I am revamping my introductory online journalism course next semester and want to know what are the most important skills an online journalist needs. Let’s take it as a given that they need an amazing news sense, but if you had to rank in order of importance specific online skills what would be most important?
I [...]

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Mobile reporting and journalism students

Imagine that you had everything you needed to edit, combine and file text, images, sound without buying a new PDA or phone. Imagine still that you could edit and file live and recorded video streams and produce and publish multimedia stories of broadcast quality with that same phone.
The Nokia Research Centre has created this application, [...]

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Twitter breaks the news again

I knew about the LA earthquake as it happened. Not through the immediacy of online news services, but through Twitter. In fact, my ‘friends’ on Twitter informed me that there were 942 tweets in 10 seconds of the quake and within 1 minute after the first earthquake shock was felt, more than 6,500 people [...]

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Creating an engaging audio slideshow

I have been working on a lecture to give to students on how to prepare an engaging audio slideshow and thought I would share a list of tips and tricks that I have collected. These students have already learnt photography and audio storytelling and editing skills – so this lecture is more on how to [...]

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Budget – a day later and where is it

When media commentators whip themselves into a frenzy about the virtues of online journalism, the focus tends to be on the ability to break news. It is rare to focus on the ability of the online medium to archive. But the infinite space offered by the internet to house stories past and present is a [...]

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Murdoch to charge for online content

Haven’t we had this debate already? And haven’t we found that it doesn’t work?
But it appears the great man of media thinks otherwise. The Financial Times is reporting that Murdoch could charge for online content for the UK’s Times and Sun this year. While the general consensus seems to have been that charging for content [...]

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