Hacks and hackers gather to write the first Data Journalism Handbook

This article is cross posted on the Open Knowledge Foundation blog and on the Data Journalism Blog.

Ravensbourne college is an ultramodern cubist design school which abuts the O2 arena on the Greenwich peninsula. It is perhaps an unusual and yet apt setting for journalists to meet. 

Members of the Open Knowledge Foundation and the European Journalism Centre saw this as a perfect opportunity to herd a number of prominent journalists and developers who, fuelled by an unlimited supply of mocacchinos, started work on the first Data Journalism Handbook.

Data Journalism Handbook

The occasion was the yearly Mozilla Festival, which acts as an incubator to many such gatherings. This year the focus was on media, freedom and the web.

The manual aims to address one crucial problem: "There are a lot of useful resources on the web," Liliana Bounegru of the EJC said, "but they are all scattered in different places. So what we're trying to do is put everything together and have a comprehensive step-by-step guide."

In data journalism, most people are self-taught, and many find it hard to keep up-to-date with every tool produced by the industry. “It could be vital having a handbook that really explains to journalists how you can approach data journalism from scratch with no prior knowledge, ” says Caelainn Barr of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Friedrich Lindenberg of the OKF believes there is a real urgency in making newsrooms data-literate: “If journalists want to keep up with the information they need to learn coding, and some bits of data analysis and data-slicing techniques. That will make much better journalism and increase accountability.”

And who better than the New York Times’ Interactive Editor Aron Pilhofer, The Guardian Data Blog’s Simon Rogers and others to lead the ambitious efforts?

In charge of sorting the wheat from the chaff, around 40 people joined them in the sixth floor of the college, for a 48 hour session.

The first draft of the handbook should be ready in the coming months, as other contributions from every corner of the web are still working on making an input.

Of course the first data journalism handbook had to be open source. How else would it be able to age gracefully and be relevant in years to come?

Workshops of this sort represent a decisively different break from the past. Aspiring data journalists will know that hands-on sessions are a cut above the usual lectures featuring knowledgeable speakers and PowerPoint presentations. Discussing the topic and citing examples is not enough. After all, if you give a man a fish you have fed him for a day. But if you teach a man ho w to fish, you have him fed for a lifetime.

Jonathan Gray concurs: “Rather than just provide examples of things that have been done with data, we want to make it easier for journalists to understand what data is available, what tools they can use to work with data, how they can visualise data sets and how they can integrate that with the existing workflows of their news organisations.”

At the event itself, after a brief introduction, the crowd split into five groups and began collaborating on each chapter of the handbook. Some were there to instill knowledge, others were there to absorb and ask questions.

“I like the fact that everyone is bringing a different skillset to the table, and we’re all challenging each other”, one participant said.

Francis Irving, CEO of ScraperWiki, led the session on new methods of data acquisitions. He believes the collaboration between journalists, programmers, developers and designers, though crucial, can generate a culture clash: “When working with data, there’s a communication question, how do you convey what you need to someone more technical and how do they then use that to find it in a way that’s useful.”

“A project like this is quite necessary,” noted Pilhofer, “It’s kind of surprising someone hasn’t tried to do this until now.”

Video report from the Data Journalism Handbook session at the Mozilla Festival

Report by Federica Cocco, freelance journalist

Federica Cocco is a freelance journalist and the former editor of Owni.eu, a data-driven investigative journalism site based in Paris. She has also worked with Wired, Channel 4 and the Guardian.

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The organisers would like to thank everyone who is contributing to the handbook for their input and to Kate Hudson for the beautiful graphics.

The free e-book will be available at the European Journalism Centre’s DataDrivenJournalism.net website in the coming months. If you want to follow our progress or contribute to the handbook you can get in touch via the data journalism mailing list, the Twitter hashtags #ddj and #ddjbook, or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Posted on November 16, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under events.

Cell.cross(“List of experts”, “Company name”).cells(“Expert name”).value[0]

A review by Nicolas Kayser-Bril of the first in a series of EJC/OKF data journalism workshops on EU spending.

As Friedrich Lindenberg was writing this abstruse code on his MacBook plugged on the beamer at the workshop on EU spending on 9 September, 20 journalists listened attentively as data started to speak before their eyes. In a conference room in Utrecht University’s 15th-century Faculty Club, the group from across Europe watched as Lindenberg compared a list of lobbying firms with the list of accredited experts at the European Commission: Any overlap would clearly suggest a conflict of interest.

More than watching, the audience actually followed in Lindenberg’s steps on Google Refine, an Excel-like tool, and was taming the data on their own laptops. At this point in time, more journalists were engaging in data-mining in Utrecht than in any other newsroom. This practical exercise was the climax of two days of learning to investigate the mountains of data produced by European institutions. Besides Lindenberg, the coder behind Open Spending, EU datajournalist Caelainn Barr, OpenCorporates founder Chris Taggart and Erik Wesselius of Corporate Europe shared expertise with participants.

The EU budget has the advantage of being massive (EUR 120 billion) and fairly open, compared to what a journalist can get from most national governments. It was the perfect topic for the European Journalism Centre and the Open Knowledge Foundation to bring together open data and data journalism. It was also a perfect topic for participants, whose ideas, depicted on the mind-map above, rushed in the first brainstorming session from health issues to real-time data to the always-fascinating lobbyists and regional grants.

Good reporting needed

Journalists reporting on the EU budget face an uphill struggle. Knowledge of the budget among Europeans is abysmally poor. One in three Europeans has never heard of an EU budget and less than one in four of those who have knows that most of the budget is spent on agriculture. More interestingly, the graph shows that the level of ignorance remained fairly constant for the past 10 years with the solidly-anchored belief that administrative costs represent the lion’s share of the EU budget (the actual figure is 6 percent).

A lack of access to clear and clean data might be one of the reasons why representations of the EU budget are so far off the mark. Ron Korver, press officer at the EU Parliament, opened the workshop by explaining that EU institutions are sometimes reluctant to giving a clear picture of their finances. He himself had to dig through pdfs published by the Commission to find a comprehensive view of the 2009 expenditures by country. Worse still: as of writing, the brochure ‘Budget 2011: Beyond the crisis, towards new goals’ still redirects to a “page not found” 404 error.

The workshop provided a large overview of the available resources to mine EU-related data, listed on this wiki. Participants were thrilled to see that expenditures could be tracked at the project level, sometimes involving only a few thousand euros (that’s on the Cohesion policy website). Most had no idea that a public register of lobbyists existed (the transparency register).

Data was analysed using Google Refine, powerful spreadsheet software that can be linked to online services. Taggart demonstrated how a journalist could seamlessly extract data from international directory Open Corporates directly in Google Refine using its reconciliation service. The rationale behind these efforts was that proficiency with such tools will help journalists save time and investigate more efficiently.

The main question in the audience was how to make a story out of data. While databases are interesting in themselves, enticing readers into digging into them is no easy task. Barr explained that her eight-month tracking of EUR 347 billion in Structural funds led to several ‘traditional’ investigations in print and broadcast. She helped uncover how a desalination plant was lying idle after receiving EUR 300 million in subsidies or how cigarette manufacturers were awarded millions to develop their factories.

Getting the data in a structured format using scrapers or character recognition software is only the first step. Next, Barr explained, journalists can look for elements that contradict the rules (e.g. subsidies given to arms or tobacco companies) or around companies known for their mafia or crime connections. Another approach is hypothesis-based. Strange voting patterns around a local legislation might be linked to conflicts of interest, for instance.

The EU expenditures database can be mashed-up with other sources, such as national registers, where additional information can be pulled. Slovak website Znasichdani, for instance, monitors companies that were awarded public tenders. Switzerland’s Infocube released an application that shows the companies national MPs have a stake in. Each of these initiatives provide material for civic-minded and highly compelling journalism.

Databases, which are often not visible in Google’s index, offer factual bits of information that can prove crucial in some investigations. Knowing that a company folded months after it received government funding, for instance, clearly hints at misdemeanor. Relying on hard data in addition to the usual unnamed quotes is the basis for precision journalism (what Wikileaks’ Julian Assange referred to as scientific journalism), a way of working that provides for more robust results than traditional methods.

The juice is at the national level

Despite these efforts to dig stories, the EU budget is likely among the cleanest in Europe. The Santer Commission, for instance, resigned in 1999 over a fraud scandal where the key charge was a dubious hire by Commissioner Edith Cresson. She took in a close friend and had him paid for two year at the tune of EUR 50,000 a year to produce a 24-page report. Outrageous, certainly. But the sum represents less than a minute’s worth of government corruption in Italy, which reaches up to EUR 60 billion a year (no one resigned).

Focusing too much on EU money should not lead European journalists to neglect national and local affairs. The openness of EU institutions (relative to most others in continental Europe) should not work against it but should be used by journalists as a launching pad to investigate bigger organisations. After all, the EU budget represents only about 2 percent of global government expenditures in Europe.

Participants engaged on this path. Brussels-based investigative journalist Mehmet Koksal, for instance, set out during the workshop to scraping the public journal of the Belgian state to mine the relations between public officials and their private-sector activities.

But such initiatives will be hard to implement without more robust coding skills. The workshop showed that there was a profound need for all kind of skills, from data scraping to statistical analysis to data visualisation. Training will be needed in these areas for journalists to become really proficient with data.

What’s more, the question of the value of data-driven reporting is still pushed under the carpet. Barr’s investigation on Structural funds took eight months. A gross approximation would put the price tag of such an enterprise above EUR 50,000. Not many newsrooms can be convinced in putting that kind of amount on the table and fewer journalists still would be able to commit it on their own. Once the value of a data-based investigation is understood, getting funding will be easier. Assessing the profitability of a data-driven approach must be the next step for the #ddj community.

Resources from the workshop:

  * Links to tools and EU spending databases on this public pad.
  * Pictures from the workshop on Flickr.
  * Videos of talks - coming up.

By Nicolas Kayser-Bril, data journalist.

Source: Data Driven Journalism website

Posted on September 19, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under analysis, events, projects, seminars.

J@YS 10th anniversary debate: “Will journalism survive?”

On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, Journalists at Your Service (J@YS), “a help centre and information hub for journalists covering Brussels and the EU., on 22 June 2011 held a debate entitled “The way forward for journalism in Europe” at the International Press Centre in Brussels .

Taking part in the debate were Beth Costa, General Secretary of International Federation of Journalists, Christopher Berg, a reporter for the newly launched European Daily paper, Gareth Harding, Brussels programme director of the Missouri School of Journalism, and freelance journalist Rafael Porto-Carrero. J@YS President Maria Laura Franciosi moderated the discussion, which gathered an audience of about 25 guests.

Educating journalists about EU topics

Franciosi opened the debated by raising the importance of educating journalists about EU topics and institutions. “That is the way to increase and encourage accurate reporting of EU affairs,” she said.

“And that’s what J@YS stands for,” she added.

J@YS recently launched a newly designed website and published the latest edition of “Reporting Brussels” (pdf), a pocket book containing information sources and tools to help journalists write EU related stories.

New opportunities

Panel and audience members alike seemed to share an optimistic outlook on the future of journalism.

Beth Costa cautioned that that there would be no easy path to overcome the present difficulties, but was hopeful for the future: “New media are offering new possibilities, and journalists will have their place in the new world.”

Rafael Porto Carrero, a freelance journalist working for various news organisations in Brussels agreed with Costa: “There will be lots of opportunities for young generations who are digitally natives and multi-media savvy.”

J@YS President Maria Laura Franciosi moderated the debate

The future of European journalism

The discussion continued by addressing the future of European journalism with a presentation of a new European media initiative, the European Daily.

Christopher Berg, a reporter for the European Daily, introduced the paper as “the first daily newspaper aiming for European readers.”

On 15 June 2011, the European Daily published 40,000 copies of its first printed edition.

Berg explained that there are at least 15 to 20 million Europeans who travel all around Europe and who need to be informed on a daily basis about European news from a European perspective.

Gareth Harding, Brussels programme director for the Missouri School of Journalism, praised the paper’s “ambitious” mission. “With the expansion of the EU and the widespread usage of English and internet which helps to break down borders, there is definitely a market for European media outlets,” he said.

Harding pointed out however that primary loyalties of European citizens’ might still lie with national and local viewpoints, making it hard for European media to find a mass audience. “I hope the European Daily succeeds,” he said.

About 25 people took part in J@YS 10th anniversary debate. Despite the relatively small number of participants the discussion was lively and insightful

How to connect European citizens to EU issues?

According to Harding, European media have to overcome important challenges. Their primal task would be to “explain to their readers and viewers why events in other European countries matter to them and can affect their life.” He illustrated his point with the examples of the Greek Euro crisis and the recent E. Coli outbreak.

Ole Aabenhus, a Denmark journalist who was sitting in the audience, commented that rather than media efforts covering all 27 EU countries, “the public needs a platform that bridges a few European countries together.”
Naturally, it is easier to point out issues and make suggestion than to engage in real reform.

If it were so simple to create a new journalism model, there would not be any need for this type of debate.

“If you ask me if I have a solution, I would answer no,” said Costa. “There is not one solution and we are facing a big challenge. But we should see this as a big opportunity for the future,” she added.

The question we need to answer now is: Who will grab this opportunity and find the path to save journalism?

Text and photographs by Taein Park, EJC intern

Posted on July 12, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under analysis, blogging, events, work.

Challenges facing the accurate news coverage of minorities and immigrants

The media is powerful. Influential politicians are hungry for media attention because they know that the media can help them create a positive public image. But what about minority groups and immigrants?

To answer this question, The European Policy Centre (EPC) held a Policy Dialogue on 31 May 2011 at the International Press Centre in Brussels on the way media can affect the public understanding of minorities and immigrants.

More than 40 participants including journalists from Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and the United States attended the event.

Moderated by Yves Pascouau, EPC senior Policy analyst, the discussion gathered three panel members: Oliver Money-Kyrle, assistant general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, Alexandra Moe, Washington D.C Director of New America Media, and Italian journalist Raymon Dassi, who engaged in a lively two-hour discussion about the media coverage of minorities and immigrants.

(from left to right) Alexandra Moe, Oliver Money-Kyrle, Yves Pascouau, Raymon Dassi

Media Structure

Oliver Money-Kyrle, Assistant General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, pointed out to a couple of structural limitations in the media itself. The journalists who are currently covering the topic are dominantly white and middle class. As a result, he said, the newsroom inherently fails to represent minorities.

In addition, Money-Kyrle noted, even when a journalist produces a good article on immigrants or minorities, the headline sometimes distorts the original intention of the article due to “selling issues”.

The article and the headline are written by two different journalists, and most of times, Money-Kyrle said, the person in charge of the headline is under pressure to sensationalise the wording in order to catch the reader’s attention.

Moreover, as a consequence of the financial woes affecting news companies, journalists are being forced to work on several stories at the same time. They are forced to work as freelancers or with short-term contracts. Money-Kyrle suggested that these working conditions have an impact on the quality of journalism in the long run.

Choice of wording
The panel members and most of the journalists in the audience agreed to say that the media coverage of minorities and immigrants has improved in the last decades. In their view, journalists are more conscious today compared to 15-20 years ago in their choice of wording when describing minorities.

The panel also discussed at length the recent rising of right wing parties in Europe and the strong and powerful negative narrative of immigrants that has surfaced in politics and even in the media.

“Politics and journalism are two areas that are closely related and in Italy, the perception of immigrants and minorities in the media is increasingly faulty,” said Italian journalist Raymon Dassi, who is also a member of the Italian Intercultural Journalists Association.

Money-Kyrle indicated that right-wing politicians try to manipulate the image of immigrants and portray them as being a great threat to their own countries. “This narrative is very powerful,” he said.

Cautious optimism

The panel members were generally optimistic about the role of the media in covering minority and immigrant communities. Money-Kyrle suggested however that without government intervention and support, the current financial situation of the media does not guarantee a better news coverage of these groups in the future.

“Journalism is a public good, and governments have to intervene to create new market conditions so that migration issues are properly covered,” Money-Kyrle said. He suggested that the role of media is not to protect immigrants and minorities but to seek the truth. ”That is why the accurate coverage of these groups is of paramount importance,” he said.

Alexandra Moe, the Washington D.C director of New America Media, also mentioned the rising of ethnic media, which now reaches about 60 million adults on a daily basis in the United States. ”Immigrants and minorities are able to inject their voices to the society which they are part of,” she said.

Dassi predicted that the political participation of immigrants will change their image in the media: “Thanks to the internet and social participation, the immigrant’s consciousness is becoming substantial,” he said.
Overall, the concluding message of the discussion was that the media coverage of minorities and immigrants has improved but still has a long way to go.

Text and photographs by Taein Park, EJC intern

Posted on June 21, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under analysis, blogging, events, work.

Media freedom in Europe: “The whole system of checks and balances is falling apart”

“Media and technology are tools. It takes a concerted effort of a people to decide how to use them. There are a few problems today, manifest in the Maghreb, but also discernible in Europe, whereby governments are building regulating frameworks and using them to weaken the media and prevent it from speaking freely, as in Hungary and Italy, for instance.”

These words, spoken by Leon Willems of Press Now, summarise succinctly the debate on Media Freedom in Europe that took place on 8 May at the TransEuropa Festival in Amsterdam.

Other participants in the debate organised by the civil society organisation European Alternatives were Thomas Bruning of the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ), Eric Karstens of the European Journalism Centre, Judith Sargentini, MEP for the Dutch green party GroenLinks, and Marietje Schaake , MEP for the Dutch social-liberal party D66.

(from left to right) Lorenzo Marsili (Director of European Alternatives), Leon Willems (Press Now), Judith Sargentini (MEP GroenLinks), Thomas Bruning (NVJ), Marietje Schaake MEP D66) and Eric Karstens (European Journalism Centre) (photo credit: European Alternatives)

Should the EU intervene?

The discussion addressed media freedom concerns in EU countries and raised the question of whether or not EU institutions should intervene to redress the situation.

Notwithstanding their different backgrounds, the panellists seemed to share Willems’ pessimistic view of the current state of media freedom in the European Union.

Italy and Hungary are the most obvious targets of criticism and Willems went as far as to assert that “by media ownership standards, Italy cannot even be considered as a European country anymore.”

But while Italy’s system of media ownership tells a tale of power and money, Hungary’s outlook is much darker, because the shift it reveals in the political system represents a much clearer and more immediate threat to democracy, Sargentini explained.

“The ruling party in Hungary holds two thirds of Parliament. This means that it can change the constitution, which it did. The media law, passed recently, is constructed out of two elements. First, the constitution of a political board to oversee the media, made up of nine members close to the government. Secondly, the imposition of balanced and ethical broadcasting practises. But what is balanced? As far as the Hungarian government is concerned, if a media organisation uses a harsh tone against the ruling party, or questions family values, its reporting is deemed unbalanced.”

The situation in Italy and Hungary raises criticism and is even the subject of ridicule in the rest of Europe, but the threat to media freedom hardly ends here.
As Willems pointed out, other countries are establishing regulatory frameworks that are curtailing the independence and pluralism of the media, such as the decision taken by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy to make the nomination of the public media regulation board a prerogative of the head of state.

Same rules for all?

Moderating the debate, European Alternatives director Lorenzo Marsili said that considering the values promoted by the European Union, one could have been hoped that it would play a more active role in enforcing the protection of human rights and media freedom in Europe.

In the case of the Hungarian media law however, this hope was ultimately deceived.  The Commission criticised the Hungarian move, but it was also quick to withdraw its reservations after only a small number of changes were introduced, even though the media law still poses a serious threat to media freedom in the country.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán promised that Hungary’s media law would be amended if it proves incompatible with EU legislation (photo credit: European Parliament)

“Candidates to club membership need to abide by the club’s rules, whereas existing members simply adjust the rules according to their wishes or flatly ignore them. Member states are not willing to criticise one another because they are afraid that it might turn against them and to find themselves in the focus of criticism. So the whole system of checks and balances is falling apart”, said Sargentini.

The Media Pluralism Monitor is a good illustration of this situation, whereby member states mutually protect one another from unfavourable judgment.

According to Karstens, this monitoring tool looked very promising because it took into account many aspects of the European media landscape and highlighted its pluralism and diversity of content. The European Parliament initiated the project and formally asked the Commission to adopt it. “But the Commission has yet to make use of it. For the time being, it doesn’t dare to do so, since its outcome would strongly tarnish Italy’s image.”

Political alliances also seem to deter the European Commission from acting. “Vivian Reding, the former Commissioner for Information Society and Media, belongs to the Christian Democrat parliamentarian group, which links her to [the French President Nicolas] Sarkozy and [the Italian Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi. Years ago, the parliament instructed her to come up with a law against centralised media, such as Berlusconi’s empire, but she never complied. She simply would not go against political allies”, said Sargentini.

This situation leads to paralysed European politics, and in Schaake’s opinion, Europeans should not merely accept this. “People should act. Citizens of the Netherlands, for instance, should call the [Dutch Christian Democratic party] CDA and tell its members: we love your family values, but we don’t like your alliance with Berlusconi’s party and the fact that you are shielding it from criticism”.

The role of the media

For Bruning, a strong, independent media is the best tool to redress these political failings. “I think that one of the most important and most influential elements in the Arab spring is the presence of Al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya in North Africa and the Middle East. Ten years ago, there was no independent media whatsoever in these countries. More than social media, it is the existence of these news networks that has brought change. Without a strong media, you cannot say much about what’s going wrong in your country,” he concluded.

It is precisely at this point that the vicious circle is being closed.

The ICT revolution is posing a serious challenge to news organisations and forcing them to adopt creative measures in order to remain financially viable and strong. State authorities could help them in defining and implementing such measures but today’s political attitude towards media freedom in Europe generally shows disregard to best practices.

The risk is also that state economic intervention might endanger the independence of the media and lead to state interference in matters of content,” Schaake noted, and thereby effectively jeopardise media freedom in Europe.

Closing of the debate, Marsili pointed out that Turkey – a candidate for European membership – is holding 60 journalists in prison for political reasons. Europe used to be a beacon of hope for countries with democratic aspirations and to take advantage of this position to pressure governments into liberalising their political, judicial and media systems.

By allowing its own member states to adopt anti-libertarian measures, the European Union is losing its high moral grounds.

As Karstens put it, “As long as we don’t have the capacity to make member states comply with best practices, we have much less opportunity to influence other countries.”

Posted on May 25, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under analysis, events.

An unforgettable stay in the land of the morning calm

I remember falling in love with Korea in the year 2000, when the then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited North Korea.

I was glued to the documentary on television, where she could be seen offering a basketball to Kim Jong-il, the leader of one of the most closed countries in the world. I was so surprised to see this man, Kim Jong-il, grinning like a child as he held the ball autographed by the NBA star Michael Jordan. He seemed so nice and yet I knew that he was oppressing 23 millions of North Koreans.

The desire to travel to this secretive country increased by the day, until finally, in August 2006, I was able to travel to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital that is hidden from the eyes of the world, when I was invited to take part in a trip organised by the Korean Friendship Association based in Spain.

I spent 11 days in North Korea before travelling to South Korea. Unfortunately, my stay in South Korea only lasted five days, just enough time to carry out a few interviews with refugees, NGOs and university teachers. It did not give me a chance to feel South Korea, the Republic of Korea.

From that year on, I started writing the first and only weblog in Portugal exclusively dedicated to the Korean peninsula.

In 2009, I came across a unique opportunity to return to South Korea. The European Journalism Centre (EJC) and the Korean Press Foundation (KPF) were organising a fellowship programme that seemed to have been especially tailor-made for me. I sent in my application and a few weeks later, was delighted to find out that I had been accepted!

Back to South Korea

Landing in Korea is like landing in another world. A world of taste, colour, tension, calm, past, future, so many apparent contradictions and yet all coexisting in a harmonious partnership.

The EJC/KFP programme started off with a series of lectures by well known Korean experts which gave our group of six European journalists a helpful overview on Korean culture and politics.

Over the following period of 12 days we were able to make contacts that would have taken us weeks to build otherwise. We visited the South Korean Parliament and had a talk with MPs from various political parties. This is when I discovered that there is a special room at the Parliament designed for the day of reunification between the two Koreas, a day which since the end of Korean War in 1953, so many Koreans have been waiting for.

We also met with the South Korean ambassador in charge of the nuclear issue and visited a few technology companies, which constitute some of South Korea’s strongest assets, as well as, perhaps, the most famous Korean company: Hyundai.

The programme took into account the areas of interest of each participant. One of the most intense moments for me was the trip we took to the DMZ. Located about 30 kms to the north of Seoul, the Demilitarised Zone bears an ironic name, since it is one of the most militarised areas in the world.

The 38th parallel marking the border between North and South Korea is a mere foot away from North Korea. It was an impressive experience to return to the same place I had visited in 2006, but this time on the other side of the border.

Expanding my knowledge and my network

During our stay we were each invited to share a dinner with a Korean family. This gave me a chance to speak with Korean people on a personal level, learn about their traditions and hear their thoughts about their country.

Meal time was always a moment of pure enjoyment. We were treated to an abundance of colours and flavours and kimchi, bulgogi, bibimba and other delicacies were all served at just the right time and with the right level of spiciness.

Our rich programme took us to various parts of Korea, including the important harbour city of Busan and its fascinating fish market where customers can buy what they want and have it cooked right in front of their eyes - a must see!

Our visit to Jeju Island was another highlight of the trip. There we saw enigmatic women, some of them older than 70 years, who still maintain the tradition of diving into the sea of Jeju, looking for oysters, octopus and other fish to earn money and sustain their families. They can dive for hours on end and without any oxygen support.

Finally, in Jeju, we enjoyed a fruitful meeting with a group of Korean journalists. I have kept these contacts until today and they have been precious. I appeal to my fellow Korean colleagues whenever I need to prepare a radio programme involving Korean affairs.

Overall, my portfolio of Korean contacts grew exponentially during this trip. This was very valuable, especially for someone like myself who is keeping a weblog devoted exclusively to Korean affairs.

For European journalists, sometimes so far removed from Asia, the EJC/KFP programme is an excellent opportunity to better understand one of the most dynamic world economies that continues to keep its ancient traditions alive.

The only problem is… you won’t want to return home!

By Rita Colaço
Portuguese reporter
http://coreiadonorte.wordpress.com

——-

The 2011 KPF/EJC fellowship programme will take place between 22 August and 3 September 2011.

Apply online before 29 May 2011!

Posted on May 11, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under blogging, events, development, projects.

Twestival helps local businesses stay ahead of the curve

Tweeple in over 200 cities all over the globe met up on Thursday March 24 with other avid Twitter users to learn new and innovative ways to use the social networking site.

Brussels was no different. Twelve businesses and organisations convened at the Radisson Royal Blu Hotel in downtown Brussels to share their experiences in using Twitter as a business tool.

“I tweet excerpts from our sightseeing audio guides,” said Valy duMoulin of In Hand Guides. “I also tweet pictures and facts about the cities that we have guides for, because I figure if I find them interesting then our followers will be interested as well.” She explained that when she posts pictures of locations on the In Hand Guides’ Twitter account, she gets many queries about them, which in turn spark interest in her products.

“Twitter has revolutionised the way we run Use-It,” said Tine Declerck, talking about the tourism agency for young travelers in Belgium where she works.

“Before, we used to have a white board in our office where we would post the events of the week and people would have to come in and check it if they wanted to know what was on offer. Now Twitter is our white board,” said Declerck.

“It’s the most profitable 10 minutes of my day,” commented Fabian van de Wiele of Click Trust Marketing about the time he spends on Twitter. “It’s free to sign up and I’ve already made three business connections just from the few daily messages I tweet.”

Van de Wiele has a slightly different outlook on the social media tool from the other presenters. He finds it more beneficial to pick and choose his followers rather than to accept everyone who wants to follow his account. That way he can tailor his tweets to just those people interested in his marketing strategies.

The goal of the event also served a great cause. The Twestival is an annual event organised by the Connect the Dots Foundation (not officially associated to Twitter) to raise awareness and funds for non-profit organisations. This year the small entrance fee was donated to the charity Europe’s Children Our Concern.

Van de Wiele best summarised the atmosphere at the Brussels Twestival when he said: “It is important to stay ahead of the curve, and being able to collaborate and learn at an event like this makes it much easier.”

The final slide of Fabian van de Wiele’s presentation at the Twestival on Thursday March 24 2011, explained rather succinctly that Twitter responses can’t always be planned. Fabian runs the company ClickTrust Marketing under the Twitter name Clicktrust.

Tine Declerck shows off the new Use-It map of Brussels at the Brussels Twestival 2011. Declerck can be seen tweeting away the times of different events and locations of fun spots in Brussels on her Twitter account Useitbrussels.

The publishers and writers of Together Magazine also attended the Brussels Twestival on Thursday March 24th 2011. Melanie Loth a writer for Together says she uses Twitter to update subscribers on her most recent feature articles at “”.

Posted on March 29, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Social Media Day, Maastricht

The social media day initiative

An initiative of social media news blog Mashable, Social Media Day on 30 June, 2010 was an attempt to gather social media fans and users in cities around the world on the same day.

“Social media has changed our lives. It has not only changed the way we communicate, but the way we connect with one another, consume our news, conduct our work, organize our lives, and much more. It’s a revolution worth celebrating,” Mashable wrote on its blog.

The Social Media Day in Maastricht was one of 600 meetups that took place in 93 countries.

Organised by the European Journalism Centre (EJC), the event gave Maastricht residents a platform to talk about the impact social media on their lives and what role they play in a city like Maastricht, especially in the light of Maastricht’s bid to become the European Cultural Capital in 2018.

Planning is everything

The Maastricht Social Media Day 2010 organising team consisted of a few members of the EJC (staff members Eszter Pakozdi, Emma Brewin, Veronica Krupova,Brook DuBois and cameramen Ivan Picart and Remko Nijsten), along with two independent social media users (Mitchell Lee and Monika Saraca).

The event was planned as an international, informal and social evening, consisting of a series of themed presentations/workshops and a final overall group discussion, all held in English.

The promotion effort was done via social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Couchsurfing and immediately gave encouraging results.

Through Facebook alone, 37 people confirmed their participation, with 49 indicating that they ‘might attend’. This example is a clear demonstration of how fast messages travel through social media channels.

Due to the high level of interest, the initial location (Jules and You office) had to be changed to a more spacious one (the Cafe de Twee Heeren conference room upstairs).

In the end however, it appeared that in spite of their information-spreading capabilities, social media platforms are not necessarily reliable channels: only 16 of those Facebookers showed up. Nine participants joined the event through personal invitations.

Six speakers were invited to provide the audience with a general overview of the emergence and the impact of social media in our society, highlighting the connections between social media and business, social media and activism, and social media and participatory journalism.

After a short introduction, the evening began with the presentation of Nicolaas Pereboom from Crossmint, explaining the origins and development of social media. Then Klaus Röhrig from Amnesty International explained how activist organisations can utilise social media. Our third speaker, Irene Senden, gave a presentation about the business social platform, LinkedIn. Speaking from a more local perspective, Sofia Tussis and Seraina Soldner of Maas Media introduced the concept of participatory journalism.

Lei Meisen from VIA 2018, who was to introduce Maastricht’s Cultural Capital concept, informing the audience about the city’s goals and ways of reaching them,  regrettably cancelled his presentation, due to unforeseen circumstances.

Meisen’s absence left the audience wondering about Maastricht’s Cultural Capital concept, all the more since the VIA 2018 website provides no information to the largely English-speaking international community in Maastricht.

Tinkering with participation


Three workshops followed the presentations.

The workshop led by Klaus from the Amnesty International Maastricht Student group looked at how social media can be used to mobilise people and small organisations. Participants were asked to reflect on how student groups can contribute to support Maastricht’s bid for 2018. Lack of integration of foreign students within the city of Maastricht, due in part to the language barrier, was identified as an important obstacle. A possible solution could be the creation of more multilingual cultural programmes to encourage bottom-up/grassroots cultural initiatives in the city. International student groups such as Amnesty International Maastricht Student mainly consist of foreign students who say that they are not involved in activities run in Dutch.

In their workshop about participatory journalism, Sofia and Seraina from Maas Media, a student initiative aiming at encouraging individuals participation in journalism, highlighted the role that media platforms can play in helping Maastricht become a more thriving cultural city, by “collecting existing initiatives across the region and pooling them under a virtual umbrella”. They also emphasised “the need for media to act as a catalyst and to create events where participants can contribute to make local life richer” and “the necessity to keep close to local stories”. The main goal of participatory journalism as they see it is to help spread opinions (ie. blogging) in a community in order to enhance cohesion within a community and to encourage the will to organise and attend cultural events.

The goal of the LinkedIn workshop was to investigate whether LinkedIn could be used to help Maastricht’s 2018 bid. Once again, the language barrier was identified as a main obstacle for the international community, since the discussion on the VIA 2018 group on LinkedIn is carried out in Dutch.  Since translation is not an option on the website, participants concluded that social media such as LinkedIn can only be a helpful tool to support Maastricht’s bid if the dialogue takes place in more languages. Participants also suggested that by excluding non-Dutch speakers Maastricht loses a large number of potential supporters. It was noted that most Dutch people have an excellent command of English, and, more importantly, seem to be happy to use English in their communication via social channels (eg. many links and messages on Facebook are posted in English by Dutch people).

Social media: for integration?

The final group discussion brought everyone back together for a deeper conclusion.

After giving a general overview on the negative and positive aspects of social media platforms and discussing privacy issues on Facebook and best practices on Twitter, the organisers invited the audience to suggest ideas to help Maastricht’s Cultural Capital bid.

Lack of local integration among the large number of international students and foreign residents working for locally based international organisations such as the EJC, as well as language barriers, were flagged as key concerns.

Participants were keen to share their opinions and comment on the fact that the VIA 2018 website, which is responsible for Maastricht’s bid, is not easily understandable for the international community because it is not available in English. Foreign residents are generally oblivious to explanations about the work being done to support Maastricht’s bid and how the city intends to reach its goal.
The main suggestion was again to offer an English page of the website next to pages in Dutch, French and German.

It was also noted that the Maastricht VIA 2018 groups on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have few participants and activity at the moment. This could be improved by generating discussions and suggesting cultural events in English in order to attract and involve the international community. The introduction of more social events in English would attract international students and lead to more culture-related social media posts, tweets, and so on.

One of the participants, Amanda Potter, later blogged about the event (her post, Social Media & Maastricht’s Bid for Cultural Capital 2018), further encouraging the discussion on the topic and even involving Lei Meisen from VIA 2018.

The organisers of Maastricht Social Media Day hope that the event will result in an ongoing ‘discussion board’ and stimulate the local community to attend or organise follow-up meetings.

Posted on July 10, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Prezi: Europe, the Media and the Financial Crisis

Howard Hudson’s presentation at the EPP/CoR Summer University for local and regional media, 2-3 June 2010, Brussels

Posted on June 1, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Saviano to open Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva

Italian journalist and best-selling author Roberto Saviano will open the 6th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC) in Geneva on Thursday 22 April, the organisers announced on Tuesday. Saviano, who has been living under police protection for more than four years, will deliver the opening keynote at 9:00 am.

Saviano is an Italian investigative journalist who has written and published extensively on the Camorra, a Neapolitan organised crime ring deeply entrenched in Italian business and politics. After he published his best-seller Gomorrah in 2008, he was threatened by several Neapolitan ‘godfathers’. The Italian government subsequently granted him police protection.

The GIJC organisers have said the conference will go ahead despite the disruption to air traffic in much of northwest Europe. Besides Saviano, other keynote speakers include Seymour Hersh, Stephen Engelberg of Propublica, Spanish prosecutor Baltazar Garzon, and Iraqi journalist Montazer al Zaïdi, who spent time in jail for throwing a shoe at US President George W. Bush in 2008.

The GIJC programme includes a total of more than 60 sessions over four days. As a partner, the European Journalism Centre, will provide a live video stream. Go to www.livestream.com/ejcnet to find out more.

Follow the conference on Twitter via www.twitter.com/gijc2010

For the conference website: www.gijc2010.ch

Posted on April 20, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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