Media News
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Russia: RIA Novosti says improving training key to surviving crisis
Russian news agency RIA Novosti believes that investing in training programs which improve staff
skills is the most effective anti-crisis program for media outlets, the
agency's editor-in-chief said. This January and June the news agency introduced a series of lectures
and seminars to train staff in multimedia technology for video recording
and photo imaging, infographics, Internet search engines, 'black PR' and
legal risks in the media. The training culminated in two-week multimedia
courses held at a summer school in the Moscow Region. The classes, which
started on June 20, are being held in the form of business games. 'Without the knowledge and skills of our journalists and editors, we
could not provide our clients with a full-fledged multimedia news line,
which delivers complicated information in an accessible format,'
RIA Novosti Editor-in-Chief Svetlana
Mironyuk said. Such multimedia products are the future for journalism
Mironyuk said, adding that the agency also plans to provide training
courses for its staff in the future. RIA Novosti deputy editor-in-chief
Maxim Filimonov, who heads the Integrated News Department, said that
around 400 people had already attended training sessions: 'We want our
people to think in stories which are told first of all visually.'
(Ria Novosti)
Other stories:
EJC Press Releases
EJC leads CAR course in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Set in the Bosnia-Herzegovinan city of Mostar, the EJC led its first advanced computer assisted reporting course over three days earlier this month. The project was funded by the Fritt Ord Foundation of Norway and implemented by EJC local partner, Media Centar Sarajevo.
Veteran Aftenposten daily newspaper journalists Jan Gunnar Furuly and Per Anders Johansen led the course. They focused on providing the latest in practical tools to investigative journalists from the West Balkans. The group of 15 was selected specifically by the trainers for their aptitude from three earlier courses run in the region. The journalists were all from print/electronic media from Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
According to Josh LaPorte, senior project manager at the EJC, there was a good reason to do an advanced course for journalists from the earlier groups: “We wanted to go deeper with this kind of project and really focus on those journalists who are most motivated to do the hard-hitting investigative stories that are so important to maintaining transparency in government and business in the region. The long-term idea is to build up a network of journalists that can be part of the same professional peer group as our trainers.”
Participants discussed recently published investigative pieces and how new online tools such as Twitter, Google maps can couple with database research and self-surveys to deepen and make any news story more relevant.
Working groups were utilised during the seminar so teams could come up with scenarios for tackling new types of investigations, looking into cybercrime, for example, with each team writing mock stories and presenting to the group.
A constant refrain was the lack of resources available to journalists in the Balkans where budgets and salaries are tight. The trainers paid attention to this on the final day, presenting low-cost ways of doing investigations and emphasising the importance of building networks among investigative journalists in the region. They also discussed utilising the region’s new freedom of information laws whenever possible to obtain data from local government institutions free of charge. Other options discussed during this component were organisations that make grants available to journalists in the West Balkans for extended investigative projects, such as Scoop.
A project website will be established to maintain such a network of journalists in the region. A follow-up course for five participants to do an actual investigation in Norway later this year is in the works.
Posted on June 13, 2009 by EJC
Filed under development.
Armenian students awarded Dutch internship
Press freedom is not a given in Armenia, rated No. 151 of the 195 countries analysed in Freedom House’s 2009 Freedom of the Press Index.
So events celebrating journalistic achievement in this landlocked former Soviet state are a big deal. And for five Armenian students, the World Press Freedom Day of 3 May, 2009, brought an opportunity for enrichment of their experiences with journalism.
The students and a duo of professors from Yerevan State University won a study trip and internship programme at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands.
The award ceremony was held in the Assembly hall of “Vazgenyan” Seminary on the shores of Lake Sevan in central Armenia. The European Journalism Centre and Media and Law Institute organised the afternoon to recognise the outstanding achievements in the second annual Investigative Journalism Competition held among eight leading Armenian universities. The competition is part of the two-year Journalism Practices Enhancement Project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Karen Andreasyan, the author of the competition, opened the award ceremony with an overview of the two-month competition. Marjan Tillmans, project manager from the EJC, outlined the impact of the investigative competition on the professional development of the future journalists and lawyers. Speeches from the various project stakeholders followed.
Posted on May 7, 2009 by EJC
Filed under development.
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Mastering the mobile phone frontier
Mobile news may be called a frontier, but smart content providers are already working in this space. There are popular iPhone applications for Le Monde, The Associated Press and the BBC. This comparison of each app highlights the importance of finding an attractive and simple way to make content available via mobile phones. A clear and consistent mobile strategy cannot be underestimated.
Featured Resource:
The Investigations Fund
Sitting on a story of systematic institutional abuse?
Veteran investigative journalists in England are trying to make sure the breakdown in business models for journalism does not prevent important stories from being told. The group of 12 journalists have started The Investigations Fund, a grant fund launched this month to subsidise investigative journalistic work.
Journalists who have a story in their notebooks begging for serious, considered investigation are invited to apply to the Fund in order to be able to afford to do the work of investigation.
“I think the idea of an investigation usually involves a story where somebody is actively trying to stop you from getting information, be it in high finance or government or politics,” said Nick Davies, one of the journalists supporting the Fund. He contributes to the Guardian and is the author of Flat Earth News.
“And it’s a story that’s important.”
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