April 30, 2003
Education update
Keep up to date with news and developments in Australian higher education via the UOW Higher Education Gateway at
http://www.library.uow.edu.au/about/news/gateway/index.html.
Posted by belinda at
04:12 PM
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Knowledge work - what it took to get there
Pathways to Knowledge Work, a report created by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, is based on Census data from the latest two censuses, 1986 and 2000. It examines the changes in the occupational structure of the Australian labour market and identifies the fastest growing occupations as well as those in decline. The full report, in PDF, is at
http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nr0022.pdf.
Posted by journoz at
12:22 PM
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Internet radio
There is a very comprehensive article (with links) on Radio on the Internet by Ian Winship in the always excellent
FreePint (
http://www.freepint.co.uk/). Read the piece at
http://www.freepint.com/issues/170403.htm#tips.
Posted by journoz at
11:57 AM
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Business lowdown
Global Edge is a good site for international business information. The site has sections for countries (browse down by region) and global resources, such as trade law, stock exchanges, company directories, statistical data sources, governments, organisations and more. See for yourself at
http://globaledge.msu.edu/.
Posted by journoz at
11:22 AM
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Annual report on UK online activity
The third in a series of annual reports on the state of the
UK online nation can be found at
http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/oee/oee.nsf/sections/
esummit-ukoannrep/$file/indexpage.htm. The site states: 'The report is structured around the three central pillars of our strategy: Business; Government; and People. It describes achievements over the last year, our commitments for the year to come, and our future strategy for UK online.'
Posted by journoz at
10:32 AM
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April 29, 2003
News feeds - reshaping the Web for news?
Caroline White has a story,
News feeds to reshape the web, at journalism.co.uk (
http://www.journalism.co.uk/). She writes: "Journalists and web experts in the US are predicting that news feeds will re-shape the way online news is published, despite several European court rulings outlawing the practice of deep-linking. There are now hundreds of news feed, or RSS (Rich Site Summary) software packages available to download free. Using XML, they search for stories under a list of topics and publications chosen by the user, then feed a selection of headlines and story summaries back to them." Read the full story at
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story579.html
Posted by journoz at
04:23 PM
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Arms trade lowdown
The
Federation of American Scientists (
http://www.fas.org/) has created the
Arms Sales Monitoring Project to work for restraint in the global production and trade of weapons. Find out more at
http://www.fas.org/asmp. The site includes an arms sales database, a newsletter, action alerts, information on arms sales and 'anti-terrorism' and more.
Posted by journoz at
01:23 PM
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Hotline to the afterlife?
You'd probably need a LOT of faith to cough up money at
Afterlife Telegrams. At this site, you can pay a terminally ill patient to memorise a message on your behalf which will then be delivered (when that patient dies) to someone you want to communicate with who's already died. No mention here of delivery problems in case that someone has been sent to the 'wrong place', and there's not much chance of getting your money back if you feel the delivery didn't take place. At $US5 a word, you wouldn't want to have a lot to say or it could get expensive. Check it out at
http://www.afterlifetelegrams.com/AFTERLIFE/.
Posted by journoz at
12:56 PM
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To new heights?
You can hear audio blogs (complete with puffing?) of Lorenzo Gariano's ascent of Mount Everest at
http://sixfields.open.ac.uk/everest/. Gariano's climb is part of a team commemorating the first ascent of Everest fifty years ago by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Proof that blogs can be done from anywhere - war zones, high mountains - the first undersea blog can't be far away.
Posted by journoz at
09:36 AM
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April 28, 2003
The future of journalism education?
Do journalists need to be professionals? Do they need to go to university to learn their craft? These are questions that have been re-examined in light of Columbia University's search for both a new dean of Journalism and a rethinking of the school's role. President Lee Bollinger of Columbia set up a Task Force to look at what role Columbia should play. His
Statement on the Future of Journalism Education is at
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/04/lcb_j_task_force.html. Not everyone agrees with him. The
Washington Post politics columnist Robert J. Samuelson takes issue with Bollinger in his piece 'Snob journalism' takes hold at Columbia' at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18346-2003Apr22.html .
Posted by journoz at
12:45 PM
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War dead
Associated Press has a freebie database on armed forces' war dead in the Iraq conflict. The basic search at
http://fmmac2.mm.ap.org/war2/search.php is just that - basic; the
Advanced Search offers a lot more options such as searching by cause of death, such as Friendly Fire, by name or by location. All casualties listed are from coalition forces - there is no information on civilian casualties. You can also use the database to search for Freed POWs or soldiers listed as missing.
Posted by journoz at
12:06 PM
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SARS briefings from WHO
The
World Health Organization (
http://www.who.int/) has a page of media briefings to date on
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Find it at
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/press/en. Also available from WHO is a colour-coded map of countries affected by SARS at
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/map2003_04_23.jpg. The US-based
Center for Disease Control also has information at
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/.
Posted by journoz at
09:20 AM
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April 24, 2003
Coming right at you
Anyone reporting AIDS or other reproductive health issues will be glad to hear about the PUSH journal (
http://www.pushjournal.org/. The journal isn't really pushy - PUSH is simply an acronym for 'Periodic Updates of Sexual and Reproductive Health issues around the world'. You have to register to get it (journalists only) but it gives journalists free access to news and magazine stories on these topics from 5,000 news sources dating back to May 2002. It is good to see services designed to deliver more informed reporting.
Posted by journoz at
01:01 PM
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No more excuses
After the high fat scares about junk food recently, everyone needs to be better informed about food content. Get the lowdown by downloading a free database of detailed nutritional information for more than 6,000 food products (including fast food items) compiled by the US Department of Agriculture (
http://www.usda.gov/). The database can be searched on a PC or PDA. Get the database and software to run it at
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/
Posted by journoz at
11:09 AM
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Do Australians have a growth fetish?
The introduction and first chapter of
Clive Hamilton's book,
Growth Fetish, is online at the
Australia Institute's home page (
http://www.tai.org.au/). (Hamilton is the Director of the Institute). There is also an accompanying web site, which links to reviews and to other papers, such as
Discussion Papers no. 49 (Overconsumption in Australia) and 50 (Downshifting in Australia). From the site: "Published by Allen & Unwin, Growth Fetish will be available from 7 April. The recommended retail price is $24.95 but members can buy copies from the Institute for $22 (includes postage)."
Posted by journoz at
10:03 AM
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April 16, 2003
Online university for journalists from 2004
Online university for journalists from 2004
The
Poynter Institute (
http://www.poynter.org/), in partnership with the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (
http://www.knightfdn.org/), will launch
NewsU (
http://www.newsu.org/) in 2004, a Web-based journalism university providing reporting, editing and online journalism courses as well as handy links for journalists. More details can be found via Poynter at
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28991&sid=41.
Survey of American journalists
The Knight Foundation also sponsored The American Journalist Today survey, carried out by researchers at the School of Journalism at Indiana University, which found that the Internet is now vital to journalists at work. Journalists are using the Net to talk to readers, download data, do background checks, get news releases and research story facts. Find the survey at http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=news_at_knight/special_reports/americanjournalist/2003_04_10_aj.html.
Poynter has information and links at http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28844#series too.
Posted by journoz at
01:13 PM
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April 14, 2003
Unlikely media star?
Iraq's Information Minister
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf has become an Internet darling and now has a fan site at
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/. One of the quotes from the site explains his appeal: "In an age of spin, al-Sahaf offers feeling and authenticity ... His lunatic counterfactual art is more appealing than the banal awfulness of the Reliable Sources."
Posted by journoz at
09:46 AM
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Register to get it
The
New York Times has put its
Iraq Navigator online for anyone, journalist or otherwise, who wants to use it. It is not just a good list of links to information on different aspects of Iraq and the war, but also a bird's eye view of how a major national newspaper newsroom organises online information for major stories. See for yourself (you'll need to register for free first) at
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/international/IRAQ_NAVIGATOR.html.
Posted by journoz at
09:40 AM
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Crime doesn't pay - it costs
The
Australian Institute of Criminology has produced a paper,
Counting the costs of crime in Australia, which estimates the major costs for a range of offences at
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi247.html. The total is a staggering
A$19 billion. They have also produced a
Technical Report at
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tbp/tbp004.html.
Posted by journoz at
09:13 AM
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April 11, 2003
Policy sources
The
Australian's Higher Education section reported on
Australian Policy Online (
http://www.apo.org.au/) on Wednesday and also on another source of Australian policy debate, the
Australian Public Intellectual (API) Network. Use it to find policy debate, experts and new academic publishing. It's at
http://www.api-network.com/.
Posted by belinda at
02:35 PM
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Report card
The
IMF has just released its
World Economic Outlook, April 2003, at
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2003/01/index.htm. It's had some coverage in the news so get the full story. For our region, there is a section entitled:
Asia-Pacific Region: Has Growth Become Less Reliant on Global Developments? . Maybe more importantly, the site also provides access to the
Global Financial Stability Report, released in March, at
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2003/01/index.htm.
Posted by journoz at
02:35 PM
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Research finders
The
Australian's Higher Education section reported on
Australian Policy Online (
http://www.apo.org.au/) on Wednesday and also on another source of Australian policy debate, the
Australian Public Intellectual (API) Network. Use it to find policy debate, experts and new academic publishing. It's at
http://www.api-network.com/.
Posted by belinda at
02:35 PM
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April 10, 2003
New Tok Pisin Web site from Radio Australia
Radio Australia has boosted its services to Tok Pisin listeners by launching a new Web site.
Tok Pisin supplies regional news and information from Radio Australia, and programs from its Tok Pisin Language Service. (Tok Pisin or Pidgin is the common language of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.) See it online at
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/tokpisin/.
Posted by journoz at
12:36 PM
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April 09, 2003
Breaking new ground in media training
For those interested in the converged newsroom,
Ifra Newsplex's seminar program should make interesting reading. While US-based, and thus out of the reach of most, the program is a guide to where converged newsrooms are going and what the changed staff roles encompass. For example, Martha Stone, Director of Training, IFRA Newsplex has this to say: 'Among the new roles in this newsroom, we believe, is the
News Resourcer, or the informatic journalist, who wields all of the tools on the information landscape by accessing information through databases, computer-assisted reporting, story contextualization and deep researching, and functions as the newsroom chief information officer." I couldn't agree more - newsrooms need such people. Details are at
http://www.newsplex.org/program/training.shtml.
Posted by journoz at
02:07 PM
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And the winner is ...
Information on the 2003
Pulitzer Prize winners can be found at
http://www.pulitzer.org/2003/2003.html. More information can also be found at
http://www.freepint.com/gary/pulitzerwinners.htm, which links to the actual stories.
Posted by journoz at
01:56 PM
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Alternative views
A Canadian librarian has created
Iraq 2003: Sources of News to link people to alternative sources of news on the Iraq war. These include weblogs, alternative newspapers and online sources, anti-war organisations and campaigns. There are also links to mainstream media, weblogs and diaries from embedded journalists, think tanks and research groups. Find the page at
http://cronus.uwindsor.ca/units/leddy/2002.nsf/HelpSubjectGuidesIraq2003.
Posted by journoz at
08:50 AM
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April 08, 2003
Net awards for online media
The
EPpys mightn't have the same glitz as the Oscars, but online news outlets are probably darn glad to get them. The awards are presented by
Editor & Publisher (
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/) and MediaWeek magazines (
http://www.mediaweek.com/) and the full list of finalists is at http://www.imakenews.com/imediainc/e_article000140122.cfm
.
Washingtonpost.com http://www.washingtonpost.com/ is the frontrunner.
Posted by journoz at
10:23 AM
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April 07, 2003
War stuff
The
Institute of War and Peace Reporting at
http://www.iwpr.net/ has news and a special subscription report on Iraq. Go to the
Iraq Programme link to subscribe to the emailed
Iraqi Crisis Report. The
US's Central Command site has constant updates on what's happening militarily. See for yourself at
http://www.centcom.mil/.
Posted by journoz at
09:03 AM
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April 04, 2003
The Best of Photojournalism 2003
The
Poynter Institute has published the US 2003
National Press Photographer's Association's
Best of Photojournalism and
Best of Photojournalism on the Web winners for 2003 at
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=27140. Lots to see there in a range of different categories, though it seems a
tad early in the year to be judging a whole year, especially with the Iraq war on.
Posted by journoz at
04:29 PM
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Media on media
How is the media doing in reporting the Iraq war? Read the
Media on Media blog at
Online Journalism Review for some US media criticism and analysis. It's at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/media_on_media/blog.php. The controversy over
Kevin Sites, the CNN cameraman who was instructed by his employers to stop writing his war blog, is also dealt with at
OJR, at this URL
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1049381758.php. A good contribution to the question of whether blogging is journalism or not.
Posted by journoz at
11:47 AM
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Australian research
Just remember to check back with
Australian Policy Online (
http://www.apo.org.au/) regularly for news updates and announcements of recently released research. It's a goldmine of story ideas for journalists.
Posted by journoz at
09:37 AM
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Creative Brisbane?
Commissioned by the Brisbane City Council, the
Brisbane's Creative Industries 2003 Report defines the city's creative industries, looks at employment in the sector, identifies strengths and weaknesses and examines financial dimensions such as government funding. The full text report is at
http://www.creativeindustries.qut.com/research/cirac/documents/bccreportonly.pdf.
Posted by journoz at
09:28 AM
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April 03, 2003
SARS
The
World Health Organization (
http://www.who.int/) has reliable information on
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) at
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/, including a FAQ at
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/sarsfaq/en. The US
Center for Disease Control also has information at
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/.
Posted by journoz at
11:50 AM
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How would the US rate?
The
US State Department has released the
2002 Country Reports on human rights practices. See them at
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/. Areas covered include Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East and North Africa, South Asia and Western Hemisphere. The US is not covered. However,
Human Rights Watch's
2003 World Report is at
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/.
Posted by journoz at
10:58 AM
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The Internet and the Iraq War
TV still rules for war news, according to a newly released
Pew Internet & American Life report,
The Internet and the Iraq War: How online Americans have used the Internet to learn war news, understand events, and promote their views, (
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Iraq_War_Report.pdf. Still, 77% of online Americans have used the Internet in connection with the war and the under-30s are increasingly visiting blogs for war news. The figures for news media use are as follows:
TV - 89% (all Americans) (87% for Internet users)
Newspapers - 24% (all Americans) (21% for Internet users)
Radio - 19% (all Americans) (22% for Internet users)
Internet - 17% (internet users only).
Posted by journoz at
10:21 AM
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