Links for today | Links para hoje

• Suicide ain’t painless, Playing the Game (Real Adventures in Journalism)

Today I witnessed the ultimate death of my newspapers.
The money hungry whores who pay themselves vastly inflated salaries to run this company have signed the death warrant and now it is just a matter of time before the advertisers carry out their wishes.
In their infinite wisdom, my so-called bosses decided to reduce pagination over summer in order to cut costs. So far so sensible. It is a season where newspapers are always likely to make a loss. I expected to lose a few editorial pages as part of this drop in size and was actually looking forward to taking the foot off the gas a little and having a bit of fun.
The plans for my new editions landed on my desk this morning and to be honest I felt like walking out there and then.
Instead of a few back of the book pages being dropped, the fucktards in charge have fundamentally destroyed the layout of my papers.

• Build an Insanely Great Web Service, ReadWriteWeb

Here is what an insanely great Web product looks like to the average user right now and through the next 3 years:

• 30 seconds: “I get it.”
• 3 minutes: “I’ve used it and still get it, and it has not annoyed me yet.”
• 3 days: “I find this really useful or fun.”
• 3 weeks: “I am raving about this to other people.”
• 3 months: “I couldn’t imagine not having this, and I’m boring my friends telling them about it.”
• 3 years: “How weird to see this on Oprah.”

• The Fundamental Training Need, The Scoop

One of the common responses to such entreaties is exemplified in this comment, which includes this plea: “I understand the need to bolster one’s skill set. But what happened to the days when we actually, you know, worried about reporting rather than slavishly trying to master every piece of technology?”

If only that was the real problem.

• 10 things you need to understand to save journalism, Justin MacLachlan

Stop thinking of your Web site as the online newspaper. It is it’s own, an entity with more power to engage and retain your readers than any medium in history. By the time I’ve visited your site a second time, it should already know what stories I like to read and it should be serving those up to me — without my asking. Make what I want not easy to find, but impossible to miss. The internet can do that, you know.

• Yet another “What if you go online-only?” scenario, Nieman Journalism Lab

This question keeps getting asked in various ways: “What if you just stopped printing the newspaper and went online-only? How many people would you need, what would your costs be, and could you earn enough revenue to make a profit?”

It’s not necessarily the right question, because there’s still life left in print. An online-print hybrid, with one or two days a week of printed distribution tied to a strong digital publishing operation, is probably a much better solution than online-only.

• Death Knell for Mainstream Newspapers, Intellectual Conservative

Print journalism today, and by that I mean daily newspapers, stands at a bloody crossroads. Those who practice it must come to grips with realities, such as all the whys behind the decline in readership, thus circulation, and not continue to espouse their personal agendas, or show favoritism to their ideological pals. (And by all means, they ought to stop slobbering over their Man in the White House. Enough already!)

Yes, it’s a crackpot theory, I realize, that the prime function of journalism is to inform the public impartially, without fear or favor. Color me naive. Casting that delusion aside, journalism suffers today from chronic, life-threatening credibility gaps amidst plummeting daily circulations. Result: Cutbacks, suspended publication, bankruptcy for some. Some wags might say fine, good riddance, but the loss of daily newspapers plainly sucks. It leaves a hole in the ether of how and where we get our news, however mangled or tainted.

I Workshop de Infografia Digital Universidade do Minho – Braga,16 e 17 de Julho

16 e 17 de Julho em Braga

O Departamento de Comunicação da Universidade do Minho está a organizar um workshop de Infografia Digital. De acordo com a organização, “este workshop, inédito em Portugal, destina-se a profissionais de jornalismo e comunicação que tenham experiência ao nível dos gráficos de informação e um domínio básico das suas ferramentas. Visa potenciar o uso das possibilidades e das linguagens do meio digital, ao nível da infografia e das narrativas online.”.

Os dois formadores são Aitor Eguinoa e Xáquin G.V., dois profissionais experientes e galardoados, com um currículo impressionante e de vanguarda. O preço deste workshop é de 250€ (com materiais e refeições incluídos).  Podem inscrever-se através do sec-cicom@ics.uminho.pt ou do telefone +351 253604214. São apenas 20 vagas por isso apressem-se.

Para mais detalhes sobre o workshop, descarreguem este PDF.

3 somewhat related posts | 3 posts mais ou menos relacionados

Twitter, news, Iran, citizen journalism and how journalists fit in the news process, all in three posts that reflect the new news logic.

Twitter, notícias, Irão, jornalismo do cidadão e como os jornalistas se encaixam no processo informativo, em três posts que reflectem a nova lógica noticiosa.

• How to verify a tweet

Twitter is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you have 100 followers or 10,000, you can break news. That’s because all tweets are recorded and indexed at search.twitter.com. If someone types the right keyword(s), they can find your tweet.

Breaking Tweets prides itself on giving many different types of Twitterers credit for breaking news, whether it be someone in Honduras with a dozen followers recording the first “earthquake” tweet or a news organization providing the first details of a major story.

But how do you know a tweet’s legitimate?

• Iran: When journalists can’t be heard, how successful can citizen journalism be at providing back-up?

In the absence of an abundance of professional reporters, amateurs have stepped up. One of the most watched and discussed videos to come out of the tragedy, and one which is emblamatic of the role of citizen journalism in reporting from Iran, is that of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman who was walking near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators when she was shot. The video has prompted international outcry and the girl’s death has since come to represent the tragedy of the conflict, a “symbol of the anti-government movement,” according to the New York Times. It was taken, not by a reporter with a camera, but by a bystander on a mobile phone, and posted on Facebook and YouTube after the man sent the 40-second clip to a friend who then forwarded to friends and news sites in Europe and the US.

• Editor claims Twitter ‘humanises’ journalists

At a discussion on Twitter’s impact on media and journalism, Colgan claimed that journalism has “never been healthier” with Twitter a powerful reporting tool. “It enables you to gather and distribute information very quickly and make it common property of the nation and the world,” he said.

He added, that by allowing journalists to express themselves personally and professionally on Twitter, can “humanise” the writer and make them more accountable. He said:  ”As professionals, our job is to try and be objective. It makes journalists accountable. You’re not just doing your job in public you’re doing a whole lot of other things in public. I think it’s a positive thing for journalism.”

But he stressed that tips sourced from Twitter still need to be checked as it is a new form of source. “The dynamic has changed to how people report on the web whether it be by Tweet or longer blog post or by aggregating a whole lot of opinion. When it comes to reporting on the web, verifying information still remains paramount,” Colgan said.

See how neatly we are directed right back to the top? Other thing: back in the presentation i gave at a convention in Guimarães, i said that journalists are becoming news traffic controllers, and media outlets are becoming more and more aggregators than generators of information, being one of the final steps of the news cycle. Now and then i don’t feel so lonely in the world.

Viram a maneira catita como somos reenviados para o início? Outra coisa: na apresentação que fiz na convenção em Guimarães, disse que os jornalistas tornaram-se controladores de tráfego informativo, e que as empresas de media são cada vez mais agregadores do que geradores de informação, sendo uma das etapas finais do ciclo de informação. De vez em quando não me sinto assim tão sozinho.

Links for today | Links para hoje

The evolution of Online Journalism

• Life after death: newspapers and the re-invention of paper technology, Knight Digital Media Center

In a world of infinite information, it would seem that providing context is more relevant than ever. Investigative journalism, the detective agency of the people, has acted as a “watchdog” presence, independent of government and big business, since its inception. Literary journalism, often bundled with terms like “long form” and “feature,” has meant sociological understanding and on-the-ground experience of the human condition in all its varying colors.

• Shift Index, Deloitte

The Center for the Edge has unveiled its most significant report to date: “The Shift Index” which suggests the current recession is masking long-term competitive challenges for U.S. businesses. Among the key findings, U.S. companies’ return on assets (ROA) have progressively dropped 75 percent from their 1965 level despite rising labor productivity. Even the highest-performing companies are struggling to maintain their ROA rates and increasingly losing market leadership positions.The index is the result of a nearly year-long effort applying a combination of established and original analytical approaches to four decades of data, some of it pre-existing and some created for the first time. More than a dozen data sources were engaged, four surveys were developed and deployed, and five proprietary methodologies were created to compile 26 metrics into three indices representing 15 industries.

• Google Games Bite Newspapers, Gawker

Desperate for online advertising, newspapers have learned to aggressively optimize their content for Google. The result: more traffic. Junky traffic.

Readers tend to spend gobs and gobs of time on newspaper sites. Indeed, their level of engagement has been print journalism’s strongest asset online, but that’s changing: According to data from Nielsen Online, readers are spending less time on top newspaper websites, including six minutes less per month at Washingtonpost.com, one minute less per month at USAToday.com and a minute and a half less per month at NYTimes.com.

• Don’t Let Yellow Press Standards Define the Future of Journalism, ReadWriteWeb

In the debate on the future of journalism, bloggers say, “We have a better economic model. The future is digital, and we are the future, so whatever we do is right.” Traditional journalists, mourning a passing world, say, “We defined how journalism works, and everyone should adhere to that model, even if it won’t work economically.” This is a gross simplification of the arguments flying back and forth. But sadly, it is a dialogue of the deaf. Neither party seems to want to listen or learn from the other.

• Less is more. The tweet(ed) revolution., Matter/Anti-Matter

The anger at CNN may have been collateral damage of Twitterers’ frustration due to having only limited impact over the events in Iran. But the effect was impressive: Within a couple of hours, #cnnfail became one of the top trending topics on Twitter, CNN was faced with a major image backlash, and you could follow the development live on Twitter. Twitter effectively acted as “media watchdog,” as Mashable commented. Citizen journalism outperformed professional journalism — in real-time. When Ahmadinejad shut down all mobile services and social networks, only a few Iranian Twitterers, with just the trusted authority of a genuine voice, were able to stay connected to the rest of the world and report on the frightening events in Iran. Synchronicity, real-time reporting, should have been CNN’s bastion but it didn’t get any of this. Twitter did.

• Which daily newspapers performed well on the weekly Web site innovation report card? Find out!, Scooping the News

Scooping the News evaluated the following five newspaper Web sites on their design/navigation, accessible archives, reader presence, in-depth reporting and evidence of continuous updates. Each newspaper received a score ranging from 1 to 4 based on changes in its Web site from five years ago to present (1 = no change, 2 = limited innovation, 3 = good innovation and 4 = significant innovation). The total of those scores provides an innovation composite score.

• Google Mining

Journalists’ diplomas and professional license | Jornalistas diplomados e carteiras profissionais

"Burning Diplomas" by burnthatsucker

The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ruled  against the compulsory diploma for journalists, finding it unconstitutional. The Academia is in a turmoil over this decision, but a question raises: does the diploma make the journalist? Before i begin, i have to make one thing clear: i’m all in favor for Journalism schools and University courses (i’m trying to get in a Masters degree in Online Journalism) and i think that a university experience helps any professional to approach, think about and work on a subject in a different, complex way that practice alone most times doesn’t teach. Though in practical terms my degree  could have been summed up to 6 months, intelectually it was really important to mature and develop ideas, something  that a superior education should foster. Add life experience to that and we have the full monty. Some of the best journalists i met in my life don’t have that kind of education, but they’re streetwise. Still, i defend all the work developed by teachers and students at Journalism faculties everywhere. They are of utmost importance. Now i can say this: the ruling was right. I don’t need a diploma to be a reporter, or having one doesn’t make me a better professional. It should, but that doesn’t happen. You could say “Well, let’s stop giving diplomas to anyone who wants to be a doctor!”. Don’t be arrogant, journalists aren’t doctors, the thought of journalists being God-like is what ruined the business. To be specifically taught as a journalist is a huge advantage on the common citizen, but as we can see, the whole definition of what a journalist does has to be revised. There is a twist in this question: the academic world fears to lose its importance, and the diploma owners fear to have lost their value. These narcisistic doubts are completely wrong. After this decision, universities will become more competitive and will have to provide the best quality courses, making sure that their graduates are the best that there could be; and the journalists that have a diploma must be proud of it, they are certified experts in their job. The real question is: who is going to set the professional standard required for good journalism? Answer: the crowd and the companies. The crowd will dismiss bad journalism much easier than it could do before, because there is so much more offer now. If the crowd doesn’t like the informational experience, they will go find a better one someplace else. And it’s up to the news companies to face this and have the best pros in the market in their payroll. If they have bad journalists, they will provide bad journalism, and that will be the end of it. Besides a few notable exceptions, most newsrooms will go after certified expert staff, or at least they should. All the whining sounds like there was no bad journalism before, and that it will be from now on. Don’t get me started on journalism ANYWHERE. There have always been good and bad, real bad journalists, plagiarism cases, sell outs, unethical behavior, lies, hidden agendas. There is not a diploma in the world that can avoid this, it’s about personal education and moral principles. There are ethics classes in all Journalism courses, usually that is the class where most students feel bored to death and fail the most. Are the ones who barely make it through and forgot about all of it the day after fit for the job? So it’s not a ethical issue. The issue is what we want from journalists. The best journalists are the ones who work harder, who have specific personal skills, who have the “journo” attitude, who have the guts to ask the right questions, the courage to face the establishment and expose the facts no matter how ugly they are and how dangerous it could turn out for them. Journalists die just because they are doing their jobs. No paper can certify this. What a diploma gives is trust. We all know how tough things are, how fast journalism is evolving. Many courses are outdated – mine is for sure, all i know about online media i learned in two workshops and reading the  best thinkers out there on the subject, and experimenting in the last three years on my own, most of the time.  I know students that dream about writing text for papers and magazines! I’d sue a university that wouldn’t make me aware of what is going on in the real world. That is the responsibility of the diploma manufacturers: to open their student’s eyes. More: to create testing grounds where experiments that don’t have the conditions or the time to occur in the professional world  may be developed. University is a place for theoretical knowledge,  that must go along with practical experiments. Technical abilities were never as important as they are now. Theory is simultaneously an asset and a disadvantage, i remember when i started working, my non-graduated colleagues made me a warm reception with these words: “You may have a diploma, but you don’t know more than we do.” They were right. But i learned what they knew and added it to what i had and built from there. The bottom line is: you don’t need a diploma to be a journalist, but there is a good chance that you will be better if you get one.

O Supremo Tribunal Federal brasileiro deliberou contra a obrigatoriedade do diploma para jornalistas, considerando-o inconstitucional. O mundo académico está num alvoroço por causa desta decisão, mas é preciso perguntar: o diploma faz o jornalista? Antes de começar, tenho que esclarecer uma coisa: sou plenamente a favor de escolas e cursos universitários de Jornalismo (estou a tentar entrar num  Mestrado de Jornalismo Online) e creio que uma frequência universitária ajuda qualquer profissional a abordar, reflectir e trabalhar um assunto de forma diferente e complexa, que só a prática não ensina. Apesar do meu curso em termos práticos poder ter sido resumido para seis meses, intelectualmente  foi muito importante para amadurecer e desenvolver ideias, algo que o ensino superior deve promover. Juntem experiência de vida e temos o pacote completo. Alguns dos melhores jornalistas que conheci não têm esses tipo de educação, mas conhecem as ruas. Eu defendo todo o trabalho desenvolvido por professores e alunos nas Faculdades de Jornalismo de toda a parte. a sua importância é enorme. Agora já posso dizer isto: a decisão foi correcta. Eu não preciso de um diploma para ser um reporter, ou ter um não faz obrigatoriamente de mim um melhor profissional. Devia, mas isso não é frequente. Podem dizer “Bem, vamos deixar de dar diplomas a médicos”. Não sejam arrogantes, a imagem dos jornalistas como semi-deuses foi o que lixou o negócio. Ter uma formação específica como jornalista traz vantagens enormes, mas como podemos ver, a definição do que o jornalista faz tem que ser revista. Há um busílis nesta questão: o mundo académico tem medo de perder a sua importância, e os diplomados de perder o seu valor. Estes receios narcisistas estão errados. Depois desta decisão as universidades terão que ser mais competitivas e fornecer os melhores cursos, assegurando que os seus graduados são os melhores que podem haver; e os jornalistas com diploma terão que ter orgulho nele, são profissionais certificados. A questão real é: quem vai definir o padrão exigido para o bom jornalismo? Resposta: a multidão e as empresas. O público vai virar costas ao mau jornalismo mais facilmente do que faria antes, porque existe muito mais oferta agora. Se o público não gostar da experiência informativa, vão procurar uma melhor noutro lado. E cabe às empresas de informação fazer face a isto contratar os melhore profissionais. Se tiverem maus jornalistas fornecerão mau jornalismo, e será o seu fim. Tirando alguma excepções notáveis, a maioria das redacção irá atrás de pessoal especialista e certificado,ou.pelo menos, deviam. Toda esta choradeira parece indicar que nunca tinha havido mau jornalismo, e que vai haver a partir de agora. Não puxem por mim sobre o jornalismo EM QUALQUER LADO. Sempre houve bons  e maus, mesmo maus jornalistas, casos de plágio, vendidos, comportamentos pouco éticos, mentiras e agendas próprias. Não há um diploma no mundo que evite isto,  pois parte da educação e princípios morais. Há cadeiras de ética em todos os cursos de Jornalismo, normalmente é a aula onde os alunos mais se aborrecem de morte e chumbam mais. Será que os que passam à justa e se esquecem de tudo no dia a seguir são os mais indicados para o trabalho? Não é esse o problema. O problema é o que pedimos aos jornalistas. Os melhores jornalistas são os que trabalham mais, que têm competências pessoais próprias, que têm a atitude “jornalística”, que têm as bolas de fazer as perguntas certas, a coragem de enfrentar o poder estabelecido e expor os factos por mais feios e perigoso que se possa tornar para eles. Há jornalistas que morrem apenas por fazerem o seu trabalho. Não é um papel que certifica isto. O que um diploma dá é confiança. Todos sabemos como são as coisas, como o jornalismo está a evoluir rapidamente. Muitos cursos estão ultrapassados – o meu está de certeza, tudo o que sei sobre media online aprendi em dois workshops e a ler os melhores especialistas sobre o tema, e a fazer experiências por conta própria e sozinho a maior parte do tempo. Sei de estudantes que sonham em escrever para o jornal ou revista! Eu processava a universidade que não me abrisse os olhos para o que se passa lá fora. Essa é a responsabilidade dos fabricantes de diplomas: abrir os olhos aos estudantes. Mais: criar laboratórios para desenvolver experiências impossíveis de desenvolver no mundo profissional. A universidade é um local onde o conhecimento teórico tem que ir de mão dada com a experiência prática. As competências técnicas nunca foram tão importantes como agora. A teoria é ao mesmo tempo um trunfo e uma desvantagem, eu lembro-me que quando comecei a trabalhar os meus colegas não licenciados receberam-me calorosamente com as seguintes palavras: “Podes ter um curso mas não sabes mais que nós.” Eles tinham razão. Mas aprendi com eles e juntei ao que já sabia, e comecei a construir a partir daí. No fundo é isto: não é preciso um diploma para se ser jornalista, mas há uma hipótese de se ser melhor se tivermos um.

front | frente

back | verso

The Portuguese situation In Portugal, it’s a different song. We don’t need a diploma to be journalists. We need a professional license, given by a committee. In my case, as a Journalism graduate, i need to be sponsored by two licensed journalists and do a training period for one year to get my license. There are other conditions for different types of licenses, but you have to pay a yearly grant. I feel it’s easier to get a gun permit. What’s good about it? You get a neat card saying you’re a journalist. That’s it. On the other hand the committee has a set of rules and punishments for those who fail to do as they require, blah blah… They say a journalist has to do his/her job following the rules of a good practice blah blah… Having a card that i have to pay for to remind me of how i should behave in my professional activity is more ridiculous than getting a diploma to become a proper journalist, at least there is potential in a diploma. Against this ludicrous logic of the certified press card are a number of things: -the job market: not all the people working now in newsrooms are license holders. Why? They get to work for free in three month internships and they’re kicked out to make way for the next batch of interns. Or they get to work in precarious conditions, part-time, or not for the required period of time to get the license. Or they’re freelancing, and never had the time or the sponsors to be eligible for one. You get the picture. -this doesn’t help journalist at all, pragmatically speaking. It’s not like holding that card will protect you from abuse in the line of duty, and secret doors will magically open. And the funny thing is that the committee asks a lot from journalists, but doesn’t bother to certify the companies they work for, if payments  are made on time, if the management has good ethical standards. That’s the Union’s business right? So if i have a Union why the hell do i need a committee? -Sponsors, trial time…give me a break, i want to work, not join a secret society. Journalists aren’t special people you know? Journalism works on the basis of freedom of speech, and everyone under most constitutions  in the world have the right to it. There  are basic rights that allow me to be a journalist without having another card in my wallet. Me or anybody else. There is the liability issue here, but nowadays with own media anyone can incur in defamation and be prosecuted for that, under the same legal figure used for journalists. There are blogs that have more readers than some newspapers. Everyone is liable. So why the need to give me a card? I don’t have one now, and i don’t care. I was to apply for the license and my boss delayed the process, and i quit the job because he missed a few payments. Cool huh? I’m not saying that journalism should be a de-regulated activity at all, i just believe if i pay my taxes as a journalist that should do to grant me discounts in pro gear,or in health insurances, etc, no cards required. And most of those benefits are gone for good anyway. Legally, journalists are an easier target, because they will poke wasp nests and sometimes they bite with law suits. There are institutions hat could provide the journalist and his company the appropriate legal support. Don’t deny me that because i don’t want a card. Recently a Charter for Freedom of Press was issued, as a measure to ask for less state regulation in journalism. Point 10 gets Portugal out of the game. Better news need better journalists, and a good journalist doesn’t need a paper or a card saying he is going enough. Usually connections go a long way, but good work may do as well. So what are your opinions on these situations? Do journalists need diplomas or licenses? Do they need felt hats to make them more genuine?

O caso português Em Portugal a cantiga é outra. Não é exigido um diploma para se ser jornalista. Precisamos de uma carteira profissional, atribuída por uma comissão. No meu caso como licenciado em Jornalismo, preciso de ser patrocinado por dois portadores da carteira e fazer um período de estágio de um ano, para obter a carteira. Há outros tipos de condições para outros tipos de carteira,mas paga-se uma anuidade. Acho que é mais fácil ter uma licença de porte de arma. As vantagens? Ficamos com um cartão catita que diz que somos jornalistas. Só. Por outro lado, a comissão tem uma série de regras e castigos que castiguem quem falhe ao requerido, blá blá… Dizem que um jornalista tem que fazer o seu trabalho de acordo com as melhores práticas blá blá… pagar um cartão para me lembrar de como devo agir na minha actividade profissional é mais ridículo que ser obrigado a ter um diploma para trabalhar como jornalista, ao menos um diploma encerra algum potencial. Contra esta lógica ridícula do cartão de jornalista há algumas coisas: – o mercado de trabalho: nem todas as pessoas a trabalhar agora em redacções têm a carteira. Porquê? Trabalham em estágios de três meses sem receber nada e são chutados fora para entrar a remessa seguinte. Ou trabalham em condições precárias,part-time, e não fazem o tempo mínimo para obter a licença. Ou são freelancers, e nunca tiveram o tempo mínimo ou os patrocinadores para pedirem uma. Vocês entendem. -isto não ajuda os jornalistas em nada,no sentido prático. Não é como ter um cartão que nos proteja de abusos no cumprimento do dever, ou magicamente abra portas secretas. E a parte engraçada é que a comissão exige muito aos jornalistas, mas não trata de certificar as empresas para quem eles trabalham, se pagam a horas, se a direcção promove bons padrões éticos. Isso havia de ser com o Sindicato não? Mas se tenho um sindicato, porque raio preciso de uma Comissão? – patrocinadores, tempo à experiência…não me lixem, eu quero é trabalhar, não juntar-me a uma sociedade secreta. Os jornalistas não são pessoas especiais sabem? O trabalho jornalístico baseia-se na premissa da liberdade de expressão, e a maioria das constituições dão este direito às pessoas. Há direitos básicos que me permitem ser jornalista, sem ter mais um cartão na carteira. A mim e a outros. Existe a questão da responsabilização aqui, mas hoje em dia, com os “próprios média” qualquer um pode ser acusado de difamação e ser processado por isso, sob a mesma figura jurídica usada para os jornalistas. Há blogs com mais leitores que alguns jornais. Toda a gente é responsabilizável. Por isso preciso de um cartão para quê? Eu não tenho um agora e não me interessa. Quis pedir o meu, mas o meu patrão atrasou o processo e deixei o trabalho porque não me pagavam. Porreiro não? Eu não defendo que não se deve regular a actividade jornalística de todo, acho que pagando os meus impostos como jornalista devia ter os descontos no equipamento profissional, nos seguros de saúde, etc, sem cartões. E muitos desses benfícios já eram. Judicialmente, os jornalistas são um alvo mais fácil, já que irão mexer em ninhos de vespas que irão picar com processos em tribunal. Há instituições que poderão apoiar  legalmente o jornalista e a sua empresa. Não me neguem isso porque não quero um cartão. Recentemente foi apresentada uma Carta para a Liberdade de Imprensa, como um forma de pedir menos intervenção do Estado no jornalismo. O ponto 10 põe Portugal fora de jogo. Melhores notícias precisam de melhores jornalistas, e um bom jornalista não precisa de um papel ou um cartão a dizer que é bom que chegue. Normalmente as cunhas ajudam mais, mas um bom trabalho pode chegar. Quais são as vossas opiniões sobre estes temas? Os jornalistas precisam de diplomas ou Carteiras? Chapéus de feltro para serem mais genuínos?

Check these links | Visitem estes links

Sobre A Profissão De Jornalista

O fim do diploma e o começo de outro jornalismo

Por oito votos a um, STF derruba obrigatoriedade do diploma de Jornalismo

Uma derrota dos pterodáctilos do jornalismo

Uma vitória da lógica e da democracia

Brasil: diploma de jornalismo já não é obrigatório

diploma obrigatório caiu, e agora?

das minhas sentimentalidades sobre o diploma

Supremo decide que é inconstitucional a exigência de diploma para o exercício do jornalismo

Mais uma vitória da sociedade

Jornalistas sem diploma, mas cidadãos (!?)

European Charter on Freedom of the Press

Article 1

Freedom of the press is essential to a democratic society. To uphold and protect it, and to respect its diversity and its political, social and cultural missions, is the mandate of all governments.

Article 2

Censorship is impermissible. Independent journalism in all media is free of persecution and repression, without a guarantee of political or regulatory interference by government. Press and online media shall not be subject to state licensing.

Article 3

The right of journalists and media to gather and disseminate information and opinions must not be threatened, restricted or made subject to punishment.

Article 4

The protection of journalistic sources shall be strictly upheld. Surveillance of, electronic eavesdropping on or searches of newsrooms, private rooms or journalists’ computers with the aim of identifying sources of information or infringing on editorial confidentiality are unacceptable.

Article 5

All states must ensure that the media have the full protection of the law and the authorities while carrying out their role. This applies in particular to defending journalists and their employees from harassment and/or physical attack. Threats to or violations of these rights must be carefully investigated and punished by the judiciary.

Article 6

The economic livelihood of the media must not be endangered by the state or by state-controlled institutions. The threat of economic sanctions is also unacceptable. Private-sector companies must respect the journalistic freedom of the media. They shall neither exert pressure on journalistic content nor attempt to mix commercial content with journalistic content.

Article 7

State or state-controlled institutions shall not hinder the freedom of access of the media and journalists to information. They have a duty to support them in their mandate to provide information.

Article 8

Media and journalists have a right to unimpeded access to all news and information sources, including those from abroad. For their reporting, foreign journalists should be provided with visas, accreditation and other required documents without delay.

Article 9

The public of any state shall be granted free access to all national and foreign media and sources of information.

Article 10

The government shall not restrict entry into the profession of journalism.

Links for today | Links para hoje

• How Twitter impacts media and journalism: Five Fundamental Factors, Ross Dawson

5. The symbiosis of mainstream media and Twitter

I have written numerous times about the symbiosis of mainstream media and social media– each feeds on the other. I also used this metaphor as a central element of my Future of Media Strategic Framework below.

This is and should be exactly the relationship between mainstream media and Twitter. Absolutely, Twitter largely feeds off established media channels. In fact it is rapidly becoming one of the most important ways for people to assess which mainstream media stories they choose to read. Twitterers select what’s most interesting, and then often comment on it, creating real-time conversations out of a static media piece.

However mainstream media is feeding off Twitter too. As Twitter grows its user base it is becoming not just a source of breaking news, but also a deep and broad indicator of sentiment and social change. News stories are not all about cataclysmic events, but also about how we are changing as a society. Journalists who do not look to Twitter as an early indicator or potential source of stories are missing a great opportunity to tap the zeitgeist.

• Knocking Down Barriers for Newspapers to Try New Technologies, Dan Schultz – MediaShift

Some Workarounds

The above list may seem depressingly long, but never fear! There are ways to fake flexibility and nimbly try new things. Although I can’t speak from experience, I’m going to throw a few ideas out there — take ‘em or leave ‘em.

Start Small — Since the dawn of time, people have found ways to lessen the blow when dealing with large scale projects: developers make prototypes, web applications have closed betas, and cavemen probably made miniature wheels before trying full-sized ones. Not everything needs to be launched full-featured and full-scale up front. Pick a small group of people to try the new internal project first, or set up a smaller portion of the feature set, or just use default settings instead of spending hours tweaking to perfection. Doing these things will give you time to work out kinks, get feedback, and figure out how/if the new service might be used before you spin your wheels.

• Creating value when everyone is a journalist, Pat Thornton @ BeatBlogging.org

Many journalists — whether they choose to admit it or not — are scared of trying to make a living in a world where anyone can report.

It’s true that the Web, smartphones, social media, blogs, etc are making it easy for everyone to report and share their stories, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a need for professional journalists. In fact, I’d argue that citizen journalism, while helping to cover the world better, only highlights the need for professional journalists.

Over the past few days, I’ve extolled the virtues of social media in covering the unrest in Iran. True, without social media, this story might not be told properly, but there still has been a large need for professional reporters.

• UK: Half of nation’s local and regional papers will be lost within five years, according to Enders Media, Editor’s Weblog

The launch of a cross-party select committee’s investigation into the future of newspapers in the UK today was overshadowed by the ominous prediction that half of the nation’s local and regional papers will be lost within the next five years.

The predictions are based on research conducted by the media analysts, Enders Media.  Its founder, Claire Enders, voiced her concerns in front of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee this morning:

“We are expecting that up to half of all the 1,300 titles will close in the next five years.”

• Prague, Futuroom, and the new hyper-local news hybrid,  Lo-Fi Hi-Style

In the beginning, I thought that all a newspaper had to do to save itself was to embrace multimedia and video.  However, after being a proponent of this approach for over three years, I began to see that this was also not working. Newspapers were still dying and it seemed there wasn’t a heck of a lot anyone could do about it.

Newspapers were becoming obsolete because of the medium on which they are printed:

• Newspapers take a lot of capital to create. Think: printing presses, ink, trucks, man-power.
• Newspapers do not allow for comments, hyperlinks, video, or real-time updates. It’s a one-way conversation.
• Newspapers are out of date the minute they are delivered.

By all measures, the newspaper is inferior to the instant delivery of news over the Internet and mobile phones because the news is trapped in the inferior medium of PAPER.

• Newsrooms should open their doors to job-seeking journos, Journalism 2.0

NPR has an interesting piece on a small ad agency in New York that has opened its doors to those in the profession who are looking for work. The job seekers get a place to research job opportunities and a place to network. The ad agency gets more sounding boards for new ideas and, occasionally, more new ideas from the job seekers.

Seems like a model some newsrooms, with plenty of extra desk space these days, should entertain.

• To link, or not to link?, StarNewsOnline (via MartinStabe.com)

The Web is a lot different than a print edition. When you are holding a newspaper in your hands, that’s the only source of information you have accessible to you at that moment. When you are on the Web, you are always just one click away from more, and sometimes better, information.

Of course, we always want the stories we produce to be the best available, but we shouldn’t be afraid to give our readers a broader perspective by linking out to others, even when we consider them competitors.

Earlier today, I read a blog post by Ryan Sholin, the director of news innovation at Publish2, a company that creates tools to help journalists to use links as a basic part of their reporting process.

Sholin quotes Chris Amico, the interactive editor for the PBS Online NewsHour, saying: “Humility is healthy. The more we get out of this mind set that we are the sole producers of useful content, the better off we’ll be in the long run.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Where do you come from? | De onde vocês vêm?

I notice a trend... | Detecto um padrão...

“Aw, twitter is killing blogs, twitter is this, twitter that…”  Bollocks. It looks great in my blog stats, better than RSS. And people often discuss my posts with me using Twitter instead of comments. Welcome to realtime editing.

“Ah, o twitter mata os blogs, twitter é isto, twitter aquilo…” Tretas. Está bem colocado nas estatísticas do blog, melhor que o RSS. E as pessoas costumam discutir os  posts comigo pelo Twitter em vez de usarem os comentários. Bem vindos à edição em tempo real.

Links for today | Links para hoje

• The people formerly known as sources, Journalism2.0

Earlier this week, a report of “man overboard” from a Seattle-based ferry put the local Coast Guard station into immediate action. As boats and helicopters were being launched, real-time updates were being posted to Twitter. By the Coast Guard.

• A.P. in Deal to Deliver Nonprofits’ Journalism, NYTimes

Four nonprofit groups devoted to investigative journalism will have their work distributed by The Associated Press, The A.P. will announce on Saturday, greatly expanding their potential audience and helping newspapers fill the gap left by their own shrinking resources.

Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material.

• What Can You Do With Government Data? Bust Politicians, That’s What, ReadWriteWeb

Public data from the government – is it an opportunity for innovation and essential accountability or a snoozer that no one really cares about? Government transparency advocacy group The Sunlight Foundation offers one example today of something that can be done with government data that is clearly worth doing – but the data they used hasn’t been made available on the Obama administration’s anemic new data repository Data.gov.

Virginia Senator, Jim Webb, has a bill going through hearings that would create a National Commission to study and make recommendations on the reform of US criminal justice laws and practices. Twenty eight other Senators have signed on in support of the bill, but cross referenced statistics shed some interesting light on those Senators still standing on the sidelines.

• Choose your multimedia, wisely, Adam Westbrook

Video, audio, pictures, timelines, slideshows, maps….multimedia’s great isn’t it? As a journalist it gives you an amazing choice of how to treat a story.

But how many journalists use that choice? And how many chose wisely?

In order to know which medium to use for which story, you must know its strengths and weaknesses; not of the software or  the content – but of the very medium itself.  Because some mediums are only good for some things.

• Newsroom as a cafe, Daniel Bachhuber
  

David Cohn pegs a newsroom as a cafe where people can hang out and, through food and drink purchase, provide an alternate source of revenue for reporting. Twenty percent of every coffee you bought might go to reporting in your local community, or something like that. For Steve Outing, the newsroom as a cafe is a place for your people to connect so that you can have greater access to your community. Both of these are pieces of a bigger picture that’s been stewing in me for a couple of months; dessert and beer at the Pied Cow on Belmont last night provided a photograph to illustrate my idea.

It’s not just about using a different industry to add to reporting revenue, but rather repositioning the news organization as the information hub for the community. The newsroom as a cafe should be an 18th century salon, or space for the leading discussions of the day to take place, ferment, and spawn action.

• Batch vs. Real Time Processing, Print vs. Online Journalism: Why the Best Web News Brands Will Never Look Like The New York Times, Cody Brown

How should a great paper develop its brand?
As the voice of god. Most of the biggest city newspapers took The Times’s lead in the 1890’s and have since spent a century developing their brand as public trusts that get it right the first time, all the time. When two city newspapers are in competition with one another, it is a war of access and infallibility – slighting an organization with a piece that is full of ’scuttlebutt’ leads to sources less willing to talk to the paper the next time. The community does not own the paper, an average person has little ability to influence it and because of this the paper is under constant scrutiny. It needs to create an aura that its work is in the interest of the public. Competitive newspapers spend millions of dollars hiring j-graduate reporters, copy editors, fact checkers, section editors, managing editors, all to create a kind of trust between the community and its information provider. When they drop a story, it is designed to be read as fact.

• uma entrevista com raquel recuero, Monitorando

Raquel Recuero é um dos principais nomes brasileiros na pesquisa sobre redes sociais. Recentemente, lançou o livro “Redes Sociais na Internet”, que deve se tornar uma referência obrigatória para aqueles que se interessam pelo assunto. O livro pode ser encontrado nas livrarias e num site especialmente criado para o seu download. Na entrevista a seguir, Raquel fala um pouco mais sobre o tema. Confira…

Links for the weekend | Links para o fim de semana

• Building43

We’ve designed building43 to bring together thought leaders in a variety of disciplines and organizations, from entrepreneurs to those responsible for the latest technologies. They will share knowledge, experiences and advice on how you can use these cool new tools and apps to make your business more successful.

But building43’s foundation and future is its community — people like you who contribute valuable content, through  video, blog posts, podcasts, Friendfeed comments, Tweets or by simply dropping us an email to tell us about the latest or next great thing.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

via ReadWriteWeb

• Why we link: A brief rundown of the reasons your news organization needs to tie the Web together, Ryan Sholin

If you’re a journalist, a huge part of your job is to filter all the information relevant to your community or your beat and pass along the important parts to your readers. Think about all the press releases you get by fax or e-mail, all the phone calls, voicemail, and messages that land on your desk, and think about how you act as a filter for that flood of information. Do the same thing with the Web.

Bring your readers the best links related to your story, and they will thank you. How? By treating you like a first-class citizen of the Internet, and coming back to your news site, which is no longer a dead end backwater in the river of news, but a point of connection where they can find other interesting streams.

• Social journalism: Back to the future, Mindy MacAdams

Engagement — one of three legs needed to support successful social media projects. (The others are inclusion and aggregation.) What does this mean for journalists, for news organizations?

Paul Gillin, a social media consultant and former technology journalist, says journalists have to play “to people’s particular interests” if we hope to engage the public.

• How to bring a startup culture into the newsroom, Journalism2.0

Scott Porad, the CTO of the company behind FailBlog.org and I Can Has Cheezburger?, highlights what hinders innovation at news organizations – and every other big company – in a recent blog post that actually made no mention of the news industry.

Some people view the world with rose-colored glasses. Mine are journo-colored, I guess.

So I immediately identified with Porad’s post, titled Corporate/Startup, and the contrast between working at corporate news organizations (which I did for 15 years) with working at a startup (which I’ve been doing for seven months now).

The discussion centered on the difference between the type of person that chooses to work at corporate jobs vs. those that are drawn to startup companies. Porad concludes that the balance between time spent doing vs. planning is the most significant determining factor. And I completely agree.

• Matt Thompson on adding context and depth to how we report news, NiemanJournalismLab

Vodpod videos no longer available.

AOL goes local

Company acquires Patch (Community News) and Going (Local Events) Platforms

Patch.com combines localized journalism with community contribution

AOL.com is investing in local, community-based information platforms. They announced the acquisition of Patch.com, a growing community news platform already available in five locations, and expecting to be up to 12 by the end of the year; and Going.com, a event platform that covers 30 major cities in the US, and that now hopes to expand worldwide.

Tim Armstrong, AOL’s Chairman and CEO says “Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today — there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily,” and  that the “acquisitions of Patch and Going will help us build out our local network further with excellent local services that enable people to stay better informed about what’s going on in their neighborhood.”

Going AOL

Or where they can party. Going.com, in the words of its CEO, Evan Schumacher “allows young people in leading cities to discover upcoming events, parties and new hot spots – and most importantly connect with others who share a similar lifestyle. By joining with AOL, we have the opportunity to greatly expand the reach of our platform to more cities both in the U.S. and around the world”.

As for Patch’s CEO Jon Brod, this is a good chance to grow more digital communities, under the AOL umbrella: “AOL’s substantial network will help us extend the reach of Patch into more and more communities. And Patch, as part of AOL’s local strategy, will create new opportunities for AOL to delight consumers and provide marketers access to highly targeted and deeply engaged audiences.”

“AOL has a legacy of connecting people to the content, community and services they care most about,” said Armstrong. “Patch and Going, combined with our existing network, will enable the company that got America online, to connect consumers around the globe to their communities online.” According to data from the press release, local advertising (online and offline) represents an approximately $103 billion market (approximately 39% of total U.S. ad spending), which might have somewhat infuenced this deal.

On a note sent out to AOL’s employees, (via TechCrunch) Armstrong highlights the importance of these acquisitions for the company´s local strategy, and discloses he was a “early investor in Patch and committed significant dollars to the vision of improving local communities with deeper online information, accountability through journalism, and a platform for communicating. In discussing our local strategy, AOL and Time Warner looked at Patch as a possible acquisition and I recused myself from that process. At the Time Warner negotiated acquisition price, I was in a position to earn a return on my investment in Patch. However, I have decided to forgo any profit from my seed investment in Patch and I have asked to receive just my seed capital in AOL shares once we separate from Time Warner.”