Richard Sambrook : SacredFacts

links for 2008-02-29

• UK Earthquake - news broken on Twitter
  (tags: twitter news internet digital journalism socialmedia)
• Exclusive: Help us examine the lost JFK files |
  Dallas News asks readers to help assess JFK documents
  (tags: digital news journalism JFK USA socialmedia)
• 100 Photographs that Changed the World by LIFE - The Digital Journalist
  (tags: photography journalism)

Not yet a two way street..

Neil Thurman of City University has sent me the headlines of a study he has just completed on User interaction with news websites. It will be published in New Media and Society and is available from his University page.

Headlines:

Major news websites are struggling to make the most of readers' contributions due to factors such as the costs of moderation and the varying quality of user-generated content (UGC), whilst in return readers are not fully engaging with the UGC initiatives.

Thurman found that 'popular' debates on the BBC News website's 'Have Your Say' attracted contributions from just 0.05 per cent of the site's daily unique audience, and one fifth the page views of  'popular' news stories.
 
The research showed that the slow uptake of UGC by some editors was due in part to worries over legal liabilities. Furthermore most publications insisted on moderation because of concerns over: spelling, grammar and decency; duplication; unbalanced views; and a lack of newsworthiness amongst contributions. These issues had caused some websites to drop UGC altogether.

 
Allf Hermida discusses the findings at Reportr.Net

I'm not surprised - interaction has always been a minority sport. Reading key news websites it's easy to see there is often a tight community of regular commenters who represent a fraction of the total readership.
But this doesn't undermine the value of news organisations being open and responsive.

[UPDATE: Shane Richmond takes him to task for being out of date....and me for being uncritical!}

Re-creating D Day

It took Steven Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan a cast of a thousand extras, huge budget and special effects. It took the BBC's Timewatch 3 blokes, an estate car, some props and a bit of creativity....

This is what we do, as someone said.

links for 2008-02-23

• Great Firewall of China Faces Online Rebels - New York Times
  (tags: internet china igf censorship)

links for 2008-02-22

• Reuters Calais: free text to Semantic Web services
  The start of where we're heading next. FUll marks to Reuters..
  (tags: reuters web3.0 semantic web internet future)

links for 2008-02-21

• PressThink: Okay, Ready? My Coordinates for a Successful News Site
  Jay Rosen's list for a successful online news operation
  (tags: jrosen pressthink internet digital news future journalism)

links for 2008-02-20

• The new roles for journalists in a multimedia world « Reportr.net
  Alf on a Tom Rosentiel speech: "journalism is shifting from being a a product to a service and, with this, a news outlet shifts from being a final destination to being part of a network."
  (tags: digital journalism networked future)

links for 2008-02-19

• Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility: The conference report
  Berkman report from jan 2005
  (tags: blogging journalism berkman harvard conference)

links for 2008-02-16

• Loic Le Meur Blog: How I started Seesmic and raised $6 million
  (tags: seesmic vc loiclemeur startup internet digital future video joost)

Will.i.am and Obama

I still think McCain may win in the end, but Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas campaign song for Obama is brilliant - as is the anti-McCain spoof of it..

I feel UK political campaigning has a bit to learn yet...