Kirk LaPointe's themediamanager.com: on journalism change,standards, ethics, and the public

A six-month break, now back to it

1/11/2015

I took a break from themediamanager.com six months ago today.

There was a clear reason for the first four months of the hiatus: I took a detour from journalism and entered the race for public life as the mayoralty candidate for the Non-Partisan Association. It would have been an ethical challenge to discuss current media while running for office.

I lost the race and have put a couple of months of distance from that event. Last month I resumed duties as Executive Director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. Last week I returned to University of British Columbia as an Adjunct Professor in the journalism program to co-teach ethics and leadership.

The site is seven years old this month, and I think it's well past time for a little shift in the approach. I'm going to merge the presswatching.com site I launched last year with it and create a couple of columns each week while keeping the focus on newsworthy links of interest in ethics, standards and the media's relationship with the public.

Traffic on the site has remained quite healthy during the absence, obviously owing to the resources I've compiled. I'm going to take another run at them in the days ahead and hope to keep the site one of the stronger ones for media resources.

June 11, 2014 media notes: Amazon clashes with Warner Video; API on mobile revenue; phone-hacking jury deliberates

6/11/2014

For Wednesday, June 11, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Amazon's recent public battle with the Hachette publishing house now has another chapter: Warner Home Video is in its own dispute over revenue share and Amazon has decided it will not let customers order high-profile DVDs in advance of their release. The New York Times reports that Amazon is taking a step back from being the self-described Everything Store. The J.K. Rowling book on Hachette and the Lego movie from Warner are signs it is prepared to tell customers to go elsewhere when it can't reach acceptable terms.
***
Jeff Sonderman, writing for the American Press Institute, examines the results of a recent conference that examined how to unlock mobile revenue. Among the nine principles: mobile is distinct in presentation and needs to be treated that way, but that content and not the platform remains the key.
***
Perhaps by this time tomorrow, the jury in the Rebekah Brooks/Andy Coulson/others phone-hacking trial in England will have returned verdicts on the charges against them. The eight-month trial tested seven counts facing seven defendants, with Brooks and Coulson the highest-profile. The phone-hacking scandal led to not only this trial but to a full-blown inquiry into press conduct in the U.K. The Guardian reports on the deliberations.

June 10, 2014 media notes: World Press Trends report; a political media critique; BBC uses chat apps to spread news

6/10/2014

For Tuesday, June 10, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

The annual World Press Trends report has several revelations: digital news audiences are up 23 per cent from a year ago, newspaper circulation is up two per cent, print advertising revenue comprises 93 per cent, print advertising declined nine per cent, and digital circulation revenue grew 60 per cent (albeit from a low starting point). The report was released at the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers conference. As journalism.co.uk reports, while audiences for digital news are on the rise, companies are not making the most of them.
***
Gregory Rodriguez, a guest writer for the Baltimore Sun, says the public has turned away from media partly because they vilify politicians as crooks. He asks: What is there left to learn? Media aren't inclusive and rarely tap into regular citizens to discuss issues. Rodriguez says media need to think beyond being democracy's watchdog and become "an active participant in its making."
***
Caroline O'Donovan, writing for Nieman Journalism Lab, examines the rise of chat apps to spread news. She notes how the BBC is using WhatsApp and WeChat, among others, and viewing these tools as mobile-first news distributors more than chat products. In a particular country, it looks for a market in which it's prominent, an app with good distribution there, and a big story. Once that triangulates, it's on.

June 9, 2014 media notes: the second media apocalypse; U.S. Supreme Court and online comments; press freedom threats

6/9/2014

For Monday, June 9, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Forget the last apocalypse. A second apocalypse is upon media. Tom Foremski, writing for ZDNet, says the strikingly low advertising rates for mobile are a new, much more menacing threat to conventional and digital media. He has found that mobile rates are about one-tenth desktop rates, which are as we know already quite lower than broadcast or print rates. How bad is it? Even Google is taking engineers off other projects to find ways to monetize mobile. Foremski paints a picture that, if you're looking to start your work on an optimistic note, is best left unread for the time being.
***
The U.S. Supreme Court could decide as early as today if it wishes to hear appeals from people sent to jail when their online comments were deemed illegal. Those appeals could establish standards that determine where free speech ends and hate crime begins online, writes Sam Hananel for Associated Press.
***
Lots of press freedom news today. The Columbia Journalism Review writes on the crackdown and pushback in Hungary, where the government has been meddling with the main public television station and shuttering the main opposition radio station. It also examines the forced departure of foreign correspondents from Yemen. Nigerian forces have raided newspaper depots. The two killers of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 were sentenced to life, while three others were sentenced to 12 to 20 years in prison.

June 6, 2014 media notes: Pakistan's channel suspended; four indicted in 1999 Serbian killing; NYT can't abandon print yet

6/6/2014

For Friday, June 6, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

The Pakistan government has stepped up its media crackdown by suspending the licence of Geo News, a popular television channel, in its dispute with the country's spy agency. The New York Times reports the broadcast regulator indicated the channel will be suspended 15 days and pay a fine. The channel had reported that the spy agency was behind a shooting of one of its journalists.
***
It has taken 15 years, but four Milosevic-era security officials have been indicted in the 1999 killing of a newspaper publisher in Serbia. Slavko Curuvija was shot outside his Belgrade apartment. Reuters reports the accused include the former head of the department of state security.
***
Ryan Chittum, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, says it's important economically that The New York Times not abandon print --- at least not yet. The Times cannot afford to move to a digital-only publication. Its financial position would move from black to red. It will be necessary to slowly wind down the print operation, he writes, in order to shift to a digital organization.

June 5, 2014 media notes: Tow data journalism report; Adobe online video report; CBS' Lara Logan returns this fall

6/5/2014

For Thursday, June 5, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

A report from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University examines the state of data-driven journalism. It looks at the impediments to growth (availability of skilled talent, newsroom culture and data literacy, among others) and identifies several recommendations to make records more transparent and accessible and to make newsrooms better adopt them in their journalism.
***
A U.S. report indicates online television viewing has grown by 246 per cent in the last year. The New York Times reports Adobe report suggests TV Everywhere (meaning authenticated viewing of channels you subscribe to and watch online) is approaching mainstream use, largely because of sports programming. Mobile video viewing grew 57 per cent and online video viewing overall was up 43 per cent in the year (35 billion viewings). As other evidence of transformation in consumption, The Guardian reports that film streaming and downloads will overtake the movie box office revenue by 2017.
***
The Hollywood Reporter says correspondent Lara Logan will be back on CBS and 60 Minutes in the fall. Logan has been on a leave since her segment on the attack on the Libyan U.S. compound in Benghazi was discredited for using a source who fabricated his supposed eyewitness account.

June 4, 2014 media notes: China erases Tienanmen record; Hungary tax threatens press; Thailand and press freedom

6/4/2014

For Wednesday, June 4, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Julian Girault, writing for Agence France Presse, notes how China is trying to erase the record of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Media don't mention it 25 years later and censors have scrubbed much of the record from any source. One-third of China's population has been born since.
***
A proposed tax on advertising revenue has drawn deep concern from Hungarian media as a backdoor attack on the press. The tax escalates to 40 per cent on revenues of more than 50 million pounds, writes Roy Greenslade of The Guardian. Even pro-government media have criticized the tax as a threat to press freedom.
***
This should be a time of media celebration in Thailand with the arrival of digital TV. But the recent coup and crackdown on the media have chilled the climate for press freedom, particularly among the new outlets, writes Marwaan Macan-Markar for the Nikkei Asian Review.

June 3, 2014 media notes: China's freer student journalists; CJR on media managers; HuffPost comments and Facebook

6/3/2014

For Tuesday, June 3, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Joseph Weber, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism professor, writes for the Washington Post that journalists in China are gradually starting to stand up to their country's censors. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, there is greater student journalist effort toward a free press. Weber led a survey on this matter with several Chinese journalism schools.
***
Ryan Chittum, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, has put his finger on interesting traits of newsroom management: that it is not easy in an age of cuts and that those doing it were good reporters but not necessarily cut out for the responsibility. Chittum concludes journalism could spend more on training, but that in the end it is just plain hard.
***
When Huffington Post announced earlier this year that it wanted to end anonymous comments and provide a better platform for civil discourse online, it didn't reveal it would use Facebook's sign-on system to identify users. The move is imminent and HuffPo is getting an earful, Poynter reports. The question is whether it will depress traffic.

June 2, 2014 media notes: UGC use and media; how to handle a killer's manifesto; HuffPost on Google Search tips

6/2/2014

For Monday, June 2, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism has examined user-generated content and draw some interesting conclusions. Among them: news agencies are the source of a lot of such content, news organizations don't credit UGC terribly well, and such content can generate a lot of content that organizations wouldn't typically produce. There is "vicarious trauma" among those who work with UGC at media outlets and there is a fear among organizations that a legal case might seriously affect the use of UGC in future.
***
The shooter last week at a Californian university left a 141-page note that described his disillusionment and set the stage for his violence. News organizations are all too accustomed now to dealing with derangement, so there is some effort to think through the handling of the clues that led to the tragedies. In some cases, media de-emphasize names and backgrounds so as not to lend authority or glory to the killers. Poynter's Kelly McBride writes about the need to publish the tract but to add ontext and expertise to help understand what compelled him to kill, while Margaret Sullivan writes as the public editor of The New York Times that it is worth considering playing down the killer's manifesto. While it is necessary to identify him, it is not necessary to give him a platform, she writes.
***
Carina Kolodny, writing for Huffington Post, identifies 14 great Google Search tricks that are of benefit to journalists researching and creating. Whether it's getting a quotation right, a definition, a story from an archive, or a search within a website, she identifies the tricks of search.

May 30, 2014 media notes: the need for a U.S. shield law; Turkey jails over Twitter; Baquet speaks about Abramson

5/30/2014

For Friday, May 30, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

The United States appeared ready last fall to pass a media shield law that would make prosecutions of journalists more difficult when they protected their sources. Law was crafted and examined. Since then, as Rem Rider of USA Today notes, silence. He argues that such a bill is fundamental to democracy and calls on the Houses to get on with it.
•••
For several months Turkey has been suppressing press freedoms and other forms of free expression, often with media concurrence. Agence France Presse reports that someone has been sentenced to prison for a "blasphemous" Tweet, while Al Jazeera reports the country's highest court has rejected the country's ban on YouTube as an infringement on personal freedoms.
***
The story of Jill Abramson's firing as executive editor of The New York Times has been missing one major player's voice. Until now. Dean Baquet, her successor and her former second-in-command, tells NPR's David Folkenflik that Abramson had been at odds with her publisher and her team for some time. He argues that it's not necessary to rough on your team, just tough on the decisions.

<<Previous