:: Future of Journalism

Friends of WikiLeaks (FoWL) launched: Independent (social) network

FoWL Welcome Message/About :: Friends of WikiLeaks (FoWL) is an independent network made up of people from across the globe who defend WikiLeaks and promote its mission and values. We are a global collection of people with shared beliefs and intentions linked together as a strong and resilient network.

[About Us:] FoWL is not a subsidiary of WikiLeaks, nor is it subordinate to WikiLeaks. FoWL is a separate network, that has the express purpose of supporting, promoting, publicising and encouraging any individual or collective which shares WikiLeaks' common values and goals.

The announcement (it has launched in the meantime)

WikiLeaks 'encrypted Facebook' is almost ready to launch wlfriends.org

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 20, 2012

Continue to read wlfriends.org

Nasdaq acknowledges technological troubles with Facebook deal

Wall Street Journal :: Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., on Sunday acknowledged design problems with Nasdaq's technology after the exchange operator was widely seen as bungling the landmark listing of shares of Facebook Inc. on Friday.

Continue to read [exclusive subscriber content] Jenny Strasburg | Jacob Bunge, online.wsj.com

Roger Mosey interview: BBC will show every Olympics event

Guardian :: Like the London 2012 chairman, Lord Coe, Roger Mosey appears convinced the 70-day torch relay around the UK will light a spark of excitement for the Games across a nation that remains split in its attitude towards it. "It's an interesting national story but it's an even bigger local story. I think the level of interest will be very pleasing," he says. BBC cameras will follow around 80% of the torch relay live

Continue to read owen Gibson, www.guardian.co.uk

Franklin Foer returns to New Republic as editor

Media Decoder | New York Times :: Two months after buying a majority stake in The New Republic, the technology entrepreneur Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, has lured one of its former stars, Franklin Foer, back to the magazine as its editor. Mr. Foer, 37, left The New Republic two years ago after a successful five-year run as editor. He was widely credited with bringing life and energy to the magazine even in the face of chronic budget cuts.

Continue to read Julie Bosman | Christine Haughney, mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

Twitter unblocked across Pakistan

Tribune, Pakistan :: Micro-blogging website Twitter has been restored in Pakistan on Sunday night, after an almost day long ban. Sources have confirmed that Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has spoken to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who ordered concerned authorities to unblock the site.

HT: Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch

Continue to read Saad Hasan | Shaheryar Popalzai, tribune.com.pk

Microsoft quietly launches So.cl social network

CNET :: In the wake of the IPO of social-networking giant Facebook, Microsoft has quietly launched So.cl, its own social networking foray. However, So.cl isn't designed to be a Facebook challenger. The project, the details of which leaked out last year, is designed to give students the ability to network with their peers to share information.

Continue to read Steven Musil, news.cnet.com

'Reporter's privilege' under fire from Obama administration amid broader war on leaks

Huffington Post :: The Obama administration Friday morning continued its headlong attack on the right of reporters to protect their confidential sources in leak investigations. Before a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Department of Justice lawyer argued that New York Times reporter James Risen should be forced to testify in the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with leaking classified information to Risen about a botched plot against the Iranian government.

Continue to read Dan Froomkin | Michael Calderone, www.huffingtonpost.com

Ad pages slip further at New York Times' magazines

WWD :: Sally Singer opened the most recent issue of The New York Times Magazine with a tribute to leisurely evolutions. “You realize that even when taste is a given, patience is a virtue,” she wrote. Her subject was architectural renovations, but her editor’s letter could have doubled as a memo to her boss, New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who reportedly grilled her last year over declining ad sales.

Abramson won’t be much happier with T’s numbers so far this year as it continues to shed advertisers.

Continue to read Erik Maza, www.wwd.com

Why China ejected Al Jazeera correspondent Melissa Chan

Columbia Journalism Review :: Is this the kind of reporting that got Al Jazeera correspondent Melissa Chan expelled from China last week? The foreign ministry did not give an official reason for the first expulsion of a journalist in 15 years, except to say that “the media concerned know in their heart what they did wrong.” Chan’s probe into “black jails”—detention centers where whistleblowers are often held without charges—was only one of several probing stories that she had done. Peter Chovanec, a professor at Tshingua University who knows Chan well, says, “She wasn’t trying to make China look bad, although sometimes the truth wasn’t pretty.”

Continue to read Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi, www.cjr.org

Moving big into mobile and video: Talking Points Memo

Niemanlab :: About six months ago, Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall had a realization. It was something that had been bouncing around in his head for a while, but only then was he sure: It was time to formally deconstruct the idea of TPM as a website first — even though it was a website first, some 12 years ago when he started it.

Continue to read Adrienne LaFrance, www.niemanlab.org

NBC's 'Community' to lose its temperamental maestro

Media Decoder | New York Times :: The rabid (if relatively few) fans of the NBC comedy “Community” got the word they were fearing late Friday night when the studio that owns the series, Sony Television, decided to replace Dan Harmon as the creative hand in charge of the series.

Continue to read Bill Carter, mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

How tiny Silverton, Colorado saved its newspaper

Poynter :: Silverton, Colo., has a population of 637 in the last census, but it didn’t let its newspaper die, Bob Dotson reports on “Today.” The San Juan County Historical Society agreed in 2009 to become publisher of the Silverton Standard. “History and news are really the same thing,” Standard editor/reporter/circulation manager Mark Esper tells Dotson. “It’s just a matter of what time it is.”

Continue to read Andrew Beaujon, www.poynter.org

Hindsight Journalism: Write about a problem before it becomes a crisis

Stearns.wordpress.com :: For quite some time I’ve been wondering if we are entering an era of “hindsight journalism,” where some of the most important stories of our time emerge after the fact. This kind of journalism shines a spotlight on critical issues, but serves as more of an autopsy than an antiseptic. It dissects issues like specimen, instead of shining a light on problems before or as they emerge. Hindsight journalism emphasizes having an explanation for how a problem happened – the chain of events – over why a problem happened – the structural forces and power dynamics that created the problem. It dissects rather than illuminates.

[Josh Stearns:] ... what more could we be doing to foster the kinds of journalism that can help us address problems before they become a crisis?

Continue to read Josh Stearns, stearns.wordpress.com

The FT's digital subscriptions could outnumber print

The Next Web :: By the end of the year, the Financial Times could have more digital subscribers than it sells print copies, FT.com‘s managing director Rob Grimshaw predicted this week during an on-stage interview with NewsCred‘s CEO Shafqat Islam as part of the Internet Week New York.

So how did the FT manage to build such a solid digital user base and to monetize it?

HT: Dale Cressman, here:

RT @tnwmedia: The Financial Times predicts more digital subscribers than it sells print copies by end of year tnw.to/1ETUa

— Dale Cressman (@cressman) May 18, 2012

Continue to read Anna Heim, thenextweb.com

Visual storytelling techniques you can use on the business beat

BusinessJournalism.org :: Victoria Lim visited Haiti after the earthquakes to report a sports story, but found the devastating damage to the country shouldn’t be shared in just words. The experienced multiplatform journalist turned instead to photography and voice recordings to detail a man’s quest to establish a soccer academy and foundation for children in a shattered city.  At JournCamp, a daylong workshop on digital journalism, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association, Lim shared tips specifically for how to tell business stories with a visual eye.

Continue to read Cale Ottens, businessjournalism.org