IJNet

Meedan is launching an Arab world newsletter, connecting journalists with 'digital fixers'

Thu, 26 May 2016 14:47:11 -0400

Meedan is launching an Arab world newsletter, connecting journalists with 'digital fixers':

Meedan’s new Arab Media Roundup will run as a weekly pilot project throughout June and July, providing a curated list of stories from news outlets in the region, trending topics and humorous coverage and illustrations.

onaissues: Snapchat for journalists: a great big guide | Online...

Wed, 11 May 2016 12:15:43 -0400

onaissues:

Snapchat for journalists: a great big guide | Online Journalism Blog

Tips on creating great stories for Snapchat with notes on tone, captions, formatting and more.

onaissues: Want to start a small data journalism team in your...

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:05:40 -0400

onaissues:

Want to start a small data journalism team in your newsroom? Here are 8 steps from ProPublica’s Scott Klein » Nieman Journalism Lab

JOB POSTING: Politics Video Editor

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:05:03 -0400

washpostpr:

The Washington Post is seeking a digital-savvy politics video editor.

The ideal candidate has demonstrated experience with video editing and is eager to tell political stories in smart, creative ways. The editor will be able to find relevant video clips, compile sound bites and create content that will play well on social platforms and pair well with our political news coverage. The politics editor will assist with and often lead our coverage of video edits and breaking news production. The editor will understand politics and its key players and find creative ways to cover news of the day. The position will require evening and weekend work.

Washington Post video editors have at least three years’ experience in a high-pressure newsroom environment, strong news judgment, familiarity with search and SEO best practices, strong writing skills and experience writing news stories, a record of excellence in new media, social media and emerging platforms and the ability to use Adobe Premiere, FinalCut ProX, Photoshop and social video tools.

Washington Post video editors take ownership of the beats they cover, telling well-crafted, sourced, concise and balanced stories under deadline despite obstacles.

Washington Post video editors are proficient in managing social media efforts and online community development, participate in daily news and enterprise meetings, monitor analytics and perform other duties as assigned. Must be available to work all shifts.

If interested, please send cover letter, resume and links to recent work to Natalie Jennings (natalie.jennings@washpost.com), Phoebe Connelly (phoebe.connelly@washpost.com) or Tracy Grant (tracy.grant@washpost.com) by April 22.

Photo

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 10:07:49 -0400

Brussels Attacks: Resources for Coverage

Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:28:58 -0400

Brussels Attacks: Resources for Coverage:

In the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, it’s crucial for journalists to continue providing fair, fact-checked coverage to readers and viewers. As the world continues to react to Tuesday’s attacks on Brussels, journalists should take steps to cover the events ethically while protecting themselves from psychological harm. The Dart Center has compiled a list of resources for journalists covering terrorism and mass killings — be sure to take some time to check these resources out.

IJNet Live: How journalists can more easily access information

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 12:41:50 -0400

IJNet Live: How journalists can more easily access information:

How can journalists file freedom of information requests? Are there any ethical challenges to accessing government information? What can journalists in closed, non-democratic societies do to access information and hold those in power accountable?

These questions and more will be answered at our live chat tomorrow. At 10 a.m. EST, we’ll talk transparency, freedom of information law and more with Helen Darbishire of Access Info Europe and Melissa Yeager of the Sunlight Foundation. You’ll be able to ask them questions about accessing information more easily as a journalist. To sign up for the chat, click here.

IJNet celebrates International Women’s Day

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 12:33:03 -0500

Each year, International Women’s Day recognizes the achievements women have made in all areas of life, from science to the arts and even to journalism.

To observe this date, we’ve gathered some of IJNet’s posts that highlight women’s role in the global journalism landscape. Whether it’s the latest data on women’s representation in the news media to stories that highlight exceptional women journalists, we have you covered:

New study reports women remain grossly underrepresented in global media

The 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project report shows that progress for women in news media has virtually ground to a halt.

Q&A with Arzu Geybulla: ‘Women deserve to have a voice as much as men do’

After attending an OSCE summit in Vienna, Azerbaijani journalist Arzu Geybulla explains what can be done to combat online abuse of female reporters.

Q&A with Zaina Erhaim: Teaching citizen journalists to survive in Syria

For Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim, safety is never guaranteed. She recently spoke with IJNet about how she reports on the violence of her country and teaches fellow citizens to do the same.

Advice for female journalists facing harassment on the job

In a recent survey of 1,000 female journalists, 65 percent said they’ve faced harassment at work. Here are some ways to handle it.

Journalist of the month: Nicole Froio

We featured Brazilian journalist and editor Nicole Froio, a freelancer based in Rio de Janeiro. Froio writes about human rights, with a special focus on feminism and gender politics.

Advice for women entrepreneurs seeking funding for their media startups

Founders of accelerators, venture capital funds and angel investing networks offered tips for early entrepreneurs at IWMF’s Cracking the Code conference.

Five tips for creating a more gender-balanced newsroom

Pointers for news organizations seeking greater gender balance in the workplace and in their storytelling.

Image credit: MONUSCO Photos, under a Creative Commons license.

Interactive Map Lets You Track How 19th- and Early-20th-Century American Newspapers Covered Any Topic

Mon, 07 Mar 2016 16:02:38 -0500

Interactive Map Lets You Track How 19th- and Early-20th-Century American Newspapers Covered Any Topic:

Ever wondered what beats journalists were covering in the 19th and 20th centuries? Now you can find out, thanks to a new interactive map built by Georgia Tech’s Research Institute and the University of Georgia’s eHistory initiative.

According to Slate, the map tracks keywords throughout the Library of Congress’ historical newspaper database and creates a visualization of the most frequent terms and keywords that appear.

“The frequency graph on each search is similar to Google’s Ngram, but more reflective of actual usage, since books take years to go into print and reappear years later in multiple editions,” said Claudio Saunt, a historian at the University of Georgia.

You can also filter the visualization according to date, in case you wanted to see which parts of the country reported on Jefferson Davis both during and after the Civil War, for example. Happy exploring!

Agência Pública announces cultural journalism center and map of independent journalism in Brazil

Fri, 04 Mar 2016 16:41:40 -0500

Agência Pública announces cultural journalism center and map of independent journalism in Brazil:

To mark its five-year anniversary, Agência Pública, a nonprofit investigative journalism outlet in Brazil, announced the launch of Casa Pública, a new cultural center, and the Map of Independent Journalism (pictured above).

Casa Pública will act as a platform to facilitate new independent journalism projects across Brazil and Latin America as a whole. The Map of Independent Journalism will be a survey of these independent projects, with 70 of them currently showcased on its site.

“In these five years, Agência Pública has persistently covered violations of Brazilians’ rights,” the organization said in a release. “Now, from Casa Pública, it plans to incubate new independent journalism initiatives and promote the exchange of experiences between professionals from around the world who are interested in investigative journalism and human rights.”

Want to know even more about Agência Pública? Read IJNet’s coverage of its fact-checking platform, Truco.

How news outlets can protect journalists from crisis-coverage burnout

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:20:17 -0500

How news outlets can protect journalists from crisis-coverage burnout:

How can journalists tell stories of tragedy and crisis — stories that undoubtedly need to be told — without subjecting themselves to psychological burden?

It’s a question that has become increasingly pertinent as psychologists have gained a better understanding of the significant mental health risks that come with viewing violence and traumatic imagery as part of one’s occupation.

For Russell Lewis, @npr’s Southern Bureau Chief, coordinating large-scale disaster coverage is just another part of the job. As part of NPR’s Go Team, Lewis helps journalists get basic supplies and rotates reporters to help them avoid crisis-coverage burnout. He recently shared his tips on protecting one’s psychological well-being with Current.org.

IJNet has also published numerous articles on keeping journalists safe from psychological trauma while covering crises. Read more about resources for journalists covering traumatic events and the considerations journalists must make when using graphic imagery in their reporting.

With Quartz’s App, You Don’t Read the News. You Chat With It

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 15:18:01 -0500

With Quartz’s App, You Don’t Read the News. You Chat With It:

@quartz’ first mobile app looks unlike pretty much any news app you can think of — because technically, it’s a news app that functions like a chat app.

Launched on Thursday, the app allows users to literally chat with the news by sending headlines to the user much like one would send a text message to a friend. These messages occasionally contain gifs and other engaging goodies. Next to each message bubble is an arrow icon that you can click to read the full story. To get the next headline, you can simply reply with “next” or “anything else?” If you have questions about a news story’s specifics, you can ask those of the app as well.

Matt Webb, a technologist who has written extensively about conversational user interfaces, told Wired that this is likely where the future of news apps — and apps in general — is headed.

“It feels absurd to me that we talk to our friends one way, and talk to our apps by pointing and jabbing our fingers at boxes,” Webb said. “It feels like there’s a new UI paradigm emerging, and it’s based around messaging.”

How to Deter Doxxing

Thu, 04 Feb 2016 13:58:05 -0500

How to Deter Doxxing:

What can today’s newsrooms do to prevent their staff from being doxxed — or having their personal information posted online? A new piece from @niemanlab-blog gives an overview of what news organizations like @vox are doing to combat doxxing and keep their journalists safe.

Copy and paste "journalism"

Wed, 03 Feb 2016 12:10:53 -0500

Copy and paste "journalism":

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Improve Your Data Literacy: 16 Blogs to Follow in 2016

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 13:46:59 -0500

Improve Your Data Literacy: 16 Blogs to Follow in 2016:

New to using online data? For any journalist, learning how to navigate the seemingly-endless world of data collections and sets available on the web is a daunting task. Luckily, you have just as many tools and resources available to help you get the hang of things quickly. Here’s a look at 16 of those resources, compiled by the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Mindset Media Guide - Mindset-mediaguide.ca

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 14:53:21 -0500

Mindset Media Guide - Mindset-mediaguide.ca:

Reporters are the first responders of the journalism industry. What they write can have a tremendous impact on public opinion and thought — particularly when it comes to reporting on the complex topic of mental illness.

“The media influence, to a perverse degree, public opinion and public policies, both of which have the potential to improve the care and the lives of people with conditions like depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and brain diseases,” wrote André Picard, health reporter at The Globe and Mail.

To establish a code of standards for journalists, the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma recently released the Mindset Media Guide. The guide includes pointers on interviewing individuals with mental illness, an overlook of mental health stigma and other best practices.

To read the English-language guide, click here. The guide is also available in French.

And if you currently report on mental health, be sure to enter your work to win the National Press Foundation’s Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting, which comes with a US$10,000 prize, by March 15.

DataBasic.io

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 14:36:21 -0500

DataBasic.io:

Data journalism is one of the most thriving niches of contemporary journalism. Many of IJNet’s own articles discuss some of today’s biggest data journalism trends, tools and resources.

But how do you do data journalism — especially if you’ve never touched a dataset before in your life?

DataBasic.io, a new suite of web tools, aims to solve this problem for newcomers. Currently comprised of three tools — WordCounter, WTFcsv and SameDiff — DataBasic introduces key concepts of working with data.

Image CC-licensed by Flickr via Bob Mical.

Agence France Presse to open bureau in North Korea

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 12:42:48 -0500

Agence France Presse to open bureau in North Korea:

On Tuesday, Agence France Presse announced it will become one of a handful of media outlets to open a permanent bureau in North Korea, @guardian reported.

Currently, only the Associated Press, Japan’s Kyodo and China’s Xinhua have a foothold in Pyongyang, the insular nation’s capital city.

AFP’s deal with the Korean Central News Agency will allow the French news agency to produce original reporting, video and photo content within North Korea. To what extent this will be true is yet to be seen — @committeetoprotectjournalists lists North Korea as the second most heavily censored country in the world.

Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media | IWMF

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 15:40:35 -0500

Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media | IWMF:

Wondering where women fit into the global media landscape?

You can now find out by perusing the new Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media, produced by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).

But many may find the report to be a disappointment. Among its findings: A staggering 73 percent of top management positions at news organizations are held my men; women hold just 27 percent of these positions.

Gender inequality in the media doesn’t stop at the top positions. The report reveals that men make up nearly two-thirds of news reporters, compared to the 36 percent of reporters who are female.

To view the full report, click here.

Image CC-licensed by Flickr via Esther Vargas.

Using Python to scrape a website and gather data: Practicing on a criminal justice dataset

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:23:57 -0500

Using Python to scrape a website and gather data: Practicing on a criminal justice dataset:

More than ever before, data is one of the most key components of the journalistic process. Data isn’t just valuable evidence — searching through data sets can help you find the story itself, as well.

But the idea of “scraping” websites for data can be intimidating to many aspiring data journalists. To improve your data scraping skills, check out this step-by-step guide from Journalist’s Resource, which will show you how to use Python to extract data from a website.