Media News - Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Knight Foundation announces six winners of first round of News Challenge focused on networks

The Knight Foundation has announced the winners of round one of its Knight News Challenge, reported Mediabistro. Nearly USD 1.4m in grants will fund six media innovation projects focused on networks, according to the Knight Foundation. Winners were revealed Monday during the MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported the Boston Globe. According to GigaOM, the winning projects are "trying to develop video, mobile and crowdsourced solutions to the problem of filtering the vast ocean of news that washes over us every day." The winners are Peepol.tv, which will aggregate live video of breaking news into a searchable map; Recovers.org, to help communities struck by disaster to create websites to attract media attention, volunteers, donations, etc.; Signalnoi.se, which lets newsrooms track which stories users are reading via social media and competitor sites; Watchup, an iPad app for aggregating videos of breaking news; Behavio, an "open-source platform that turns phones into smart sensors of people’s real world behavior;" and Tor Project, which focuses on creating ways for journalists to safely and anonymously communicate with sources. This year the Knight Foundation is offering three rounds of the News Challenge, instead of just one, in order to better keep pace with innovation. (Knight Center)

Sina Weibo starts charging Chinese for premium features

Sina Weibo, China's biggest Twitter-like microblogging platform, has introduced a membership charge for premium features. For a monthly fee of CNY 10 yuan (USD 1.57) its 300 million users can add personalised pages, voice posts and better security, among other services. The move could help return the firm to profit. It posted a USD 13.7m loss for its first quarter in May. One analyst called it a "bold move", adding Twitter was unlikely to follow. Sina Weibo is introducing a total of 15 added VIP features, according to the Tech in Asia blog. It said the move built on other recent innovations added to the platform including social games and a virtual currency called Weibi. One Beijing-based business consultant noted the decision to charge fees had followed government pressure on the business to boost efforts to filter out illegal posts by some of its members, increasing its costs. (BBC News)

U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus: newspaper

The United States and Israel jointly developed the Flame computer virus that collected intelligence to help slow Iran's nuclear program, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous Western officials. The so-called Flame malware aimed to map Iran's computer networks and monitor computers of Iranian officials, the newspaper said. It was designed to provide intelligence to help in a cyber campaign against Iran's nuclear program, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel's military, the Post said. The cyber campaign against Iran's nuclear program has included the use of another computer virus called Stuxnet that caused malfunctions in Iran's nuclear enrichment equipment, the newspaper said. Current and former U.S. and Western national security officials confirmed to Reuters that the United States played a role in creating the Flame virus. Since Flame was an intelligence "collection" virus rather than a cyberwarfare program to sabotage computer systems, it required less-stringent U.S. legal and policy review than any U.S. involvement in offensive cyberwarfare efforts, experts told Reuters. (Reuters)

Australian media in digital shakeup

A shakeup which will see Australia become the first country in the world with all its flagship newspapers behind an Internet paywall has prompted declarations that the "golden age of newspapers is dead". But analysts are divided on whether the digital-focused overhaul of media giant Fairfax - the only major rival Down Under to Rupert Murdoch's News Limited - sounds a death knell for newspaper journalism in Australia. Fairfax sent shockwaves through the media sector Monday by announcing it would sack 1,900 staff and put the online versions of its metropolitan Sydney Morning Herald and The Age broadsheets behind a paywall. The newspapers themselves will be scaled down to tabloid format and two printing presses shut as the haemorrhaging company, which is being circled by mining magnate Gina Rinehart, attempts a radical online transformation. News Limited is widely expected to unveil its own brutal print streamlining which will cost up to 1,500 jobs, underscoring the digital era's demolition of traditional readership and revenue models. Fairfax's third-largest stakeholder, funds management group Allan Gray, has warned that the company's main metropolitan dailies face closure, describing them as "already worth less than nothing". Former editor of The Age Michael Smith described the reforms as the biggest announcement in a century for Australia's heavily consolidated newspaper sector, which is 70 percent owned by Murdoch. (AFP)

Study shows health care opponents won in media

Opponents of President Barack Obama’s health care plan decisively beat supporters in getting their message across through the media, according to a study released Tuesday. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism said opponents won, in part, because their positions were sharper and easier to understand. Critics also more frequently drove the coverage, particularly when Tea Party demonstrations came to the fore. Pew studied a 10-month period that ended on March 31, 2010, on various platforms including network and cable news, newspaper, magazines and online publications. It found the three main themes expressed by opponents — that the plan called for further government involvement, it raised taxes and rationed health care — were mentioned some 18,181 times. Terminology used by supporters to convey that the legislation increased marketplace competition, insured more pre-existing conditions and combatted greedy insurance industry practices received 10,883 mentions, Pew said. Phrases used by opponents, calling it government-run health care, a government takeover of health care and ‘‘death panels’’ were ‘‘really evocative,’’ said Tom Rosenstiel, the project’s director. They were also used more consistently, an indication that opponents were better organized than supporters, he said. (AP)

Facebook launches Olympics resource and guide for journalists

Facebook's Explore London 2012 resource Facebook has announced the launch of Explore London 2012, a page designed to help Olympics fans and journalists to keep track of the latest stories. The page, which combines pages for athletes, national teams and sports, and will soon add Facebook pages for broadcasters NBC and BBC, and for sponsors. According to a release, Joanna Shields, VP and managing director EMEA at Facebook said the tool means "all athletes can have an audience" and "share their stories with the world." Mark Adams, director of communications at the IOC said in the release "these will be the first truly 'social' Games". TechCrunch points out in a post that Facebook’s relationship with the Olympics is not exclusive. (Journalism.co.uk)

• Home |
• Seminars  |
• Events |
• Media Landscape |
• Newsroom|
• Media News|
• Resources

Terms of service and Privacy policy.

Copyright © 1992- 2013 European Journalism Centre. All rights reserved.

Valid XHTML and CSS.

European Journalism Centre

Sonneville-lunet 10
6221KT Maastricht
The Netherlands

Tel. : +31 43 325 40 30
Fax : +32 2 400 42 20

E-mail: info[at]ejc.net