Media News - Friday, August 03, 2012

Investigative news channel ‘The I Files’ launches on YouTube

The Center for Investigative Reporting has launched a new investigative news channel on YouTube, The I Files, with the aim of acting as a "showcase for the best investigative news videos from around the world". The new channel will include contributions by news outlets such as BBC America and the New York Times, "as well as public television's ITVS and a host of independent reporters and producers". The first videos went live on the channel on August 2, including curated video content posted on YouTube by its collection of contributor outlets. Content featured will range from short animations to full length documentaries. (Journalism.co.uk)

Seven journalists in UK charged over hacking

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was formally charged with phone hacking today and will appear in court next month. Six others journalists from the News of the World, including David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson, have been officially charged and will appear at the same court on August 16. The seven stand accused of one general charge of alleged phone hacking between October 2000 and August 2006 that could affect as many as 600 victims. Brooks, of Churchill, Oxford, and Coulson face specific charges of illegally accessing the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. (Press Gazette)

Abducted Turkish journalists ‘released’ in Syria

Two Turkish journalists who had have been captured by Members of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) were released and are back in Turkey. The reporters were in Turkey to cover the civil war when they were captured in the province of Aleppo, the centre of intense fighting between government and rebel forces. Cihat Arpacik, of the Milli Gazete daily, and Kemal Gumus of the Star Gazetesi newspaper, were abducted early Wednesday. The journalists were held until the evening, at which point they were put inside an unidentified vehicle and sent off to an unknown direction. Their release was mediated by the Free Syrian Army, according to reports. (Adnkronos.com)

Olympic ticket app blocked by organisers

An unofficial Olympic ticket app, which tweeted alerts when new tickets became available on the London 2012 website, has apparently been blocked by Olympic organisers, despite helping more than 600 people get tickets to the Games. Adam Naisbitt built the app for his own personal use, trying to get tickets for the gymnastics for his fiancee, but decided to put the technology on Twitter to help members of the public fill the controversial empty seats. "I could have sat on the website for hours pressing 'refresh', but instead I sat down for around five hours, headphones on, and built something that could do that for me," he told. (The Huffington Post)

Northcliffe Media abandons efforts to unmask spoof Twitter account

Regional newspaper group Northcliffe Media has abandoned its bid to unmask a spoof Twitter account of its chief executive. Northcliffe withdrew its attempt to force Twitter to reveal the identity of the person behind Steve Dorkland, a parody account of its chief executive Steve Auckland, on Thursday night after a legal fight in the US. Northcliffe, which is owned by Daily Mail & General Trust, had previously said it was determined to unmask the user and stop the messages it claimed brought the company's image into disrepute. The company claimed in its legal filing that Steve Dorkland published information apparently obtained from surveillance of Northcliffe employees, and publicly disseminated highly sensitive information about employees' personal lives. (The Guardian)

Facebook has more than 83 million ‘fake’ users

Facebook has revealed that it believes there are now more than 83 million fake users on the social network. In company filings published this week, it said 8.7% of its 955 million active users might not be real. The estimate came at a time of growing concern about the value of marketing on the platform. The largest group of "fakes" were duplicates, which the company defined as "an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account." Others were described as "user-misclassified" where, Facebook explained "users have created personal profiles for a business, organisation, or non-human entity such as a pet". Finally, "undesirable" accounts were profiles deemed to be in breach of Facebook's terms of service. Typically, this means profiles which have been used for sending out spam messages or other content. (CNN)

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