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Archive:
September 28, 2005
Blogs for freedom
Reporters Without Borders (
Reporters sans Frontieres http://www.rsf.org/) have published a
Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents at
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542. It will teach you how to blog anonymously, how to get around censorship and how to build credibility for your blog through ethical reporting. RSF developed the handbook because "
Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest." The counter-terrorism boys will probably be all over this handbook -- after all, if the good guys can use these work-arounds, so can the bad ones.
Posted by belinda at
10:18 AM
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Comments (0)
January 28, 2005
The state of things
People may not always be sure what it is, but
blogging is alive and well, according to a
Pew Internet & American Life Project called
The State of Blogging. Apparently 8 million Americans have set one up, though how many are regularly maintained is unknown. Blogs are certainly establishing themselves as an alternative to 'straight' news, with 27% of Net users regularly reading them. Many use RSS feeds or XML readers to keep in touch with their favourites. The full report is at
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf.
Posted by belinda at
04:03 PM
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October 15, 2004
Blogs and readers and trust
The US-based
Associated Press Managing Editors runs a project called the
National Credibility Roundtables Project. Details can be found at
http://www.apme-credibility.org/index.html. It includes a
Credibility Roundtable
Database to facilitate the use of newspapers for research. New on the site are the results of various
Readers Speak surveys, one of which concerns blogging. Apparently
one in five US Internet users reads blogs and the reasons readers have for following blogs vary a lot -- from getting a new slant on existing news stories to finding out about stories not on the radar anywhere else. Journalists are urged to read and use blogs as good sources of new story ideas. The site is worth a look -- there's a lot there.
Posted by belinda at
10:13 AM
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June 08, 2004
From the front line
What's life really like in Iraq now? For people who live there? For soldiers stuck there? Use
Bloggers4Freedom (
www.bloggers4freedom.com/) to find out.
It contains first person accounts of the war zone from those actually living there or engaged in ongoing conflicts. The site aims to be apolitical and take no particular line. It includes blogs from soldiers actually in Iraq, those recently returned, and some from soldiers elsewhere in the Middle East. Iraqi blogs include some expatriate views and some sourced from other parts of the Middle East. According to the site's disclaimer, some of the Iraqi opinions expressed may seem (surprise, surprise!) "
negative by American standards".
Posted by belinda at
10:30 AM
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Comments (0)
May 17, 2004
VoxPop
New tool
BlogPulse (
www.blogpulse.com/) has been developed to tell us what the chatterati are currently discussing. Use it to find the key people, the key phrases, or the top links in the latest blog postings. With the movie
Troy just out here, no surprises in the fact that Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom appear in the top 40 key people. However, a few political names crop up as well so it isn't wall to wall entertainment goss out in blogland.
Abu Ghraib is the top phrase.
Posted by belinda at
03:38 PM
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Comments (0)
March 05, 2004
Comments not welcome
There has been a comment option on this blog for some time, but it has increasingly been used by spammers. Since I don't want to remove endless Viagra ads, I have closed down comment for the moment. Apologies to anyone who would like to comment. Please contact me directly at belinda AT journoz.com if you want to comment and I will post your remarks. I'm not in favour of censorship but it's really time something was done about spammers - they really are a dreadful blight on online use. As someone who gets at least 50 spam emails a day, I resent the time I have to spend deleting them!
Posted by belinda at
10:28 AM
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Comments (0)
February 18, 2004
US Presidential campaign weblog
The
New York Times has started up a blog to report from the
campaign trail of the US Presidential campaigns.
Times on the Trail is frequently updated and should be essential for those who have to get the latest. Find it at
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/trail/index.html. Expect some damaging revelations as the fight gets dirty.
Posted by belinda at
11:47 AM
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Comments (0)
November 11, 2003
Gizmo heaven
People who love toys will love
Gizmodo (
http://www.gizmodo.com/), a blog for gadget lovers. These are sleek, expensive gadgets and highlights include a new Samsung
camcorder the size of a mobile phone. It can record for two hours and you can carry it in your pocket. See for yourself at
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/010009.php. The blog also highlights
Popular Science magazine's latest picks at
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/010070.php#010070.
Posted by belinda at
02:42 PM
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Comments (0)
October 03, 2003
All about blogs and journalism
The question of
whether blogging is journalism continues to get people arguing. The latest issue of the
Nieman Reports, a magazine out of the journalism school at Harvard University has a big section on that question with a number of well-known bloggers -- Mark Glaser, Paul Grabowicz, Rebecca Blood and J.D. Lasica -- weighing in. The full PDF of the journal is at
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/03-3NRfall/V57N3.pdf and the blog stuff starts around page 59.
Posted by belinda at
12:22 PM
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Comments (0)
September 30, 2003
Behind the Homefront
This new blog, from the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is "
a daily chronicle of news in homeland security and military operations affecting newsgathering, access to information and the public's right to know." Read it at
http://www.rcfp.org/behindthehomefront/.
Posted by belinda at
11:46 AM
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September 17, 2003
Professors online
Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University, has started a blog called
Press/Think at
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/. Today's post is all about opinion crowding out news and why talking heads only want to be seen on TV.
Posted by belinda at
03:43 PM
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Comments (0)
August 22, 2003
Moblog services
It was only a matter of time before some smart person decided to offer an online home to all the mobile/phone bloggers out there.
mLogs (
http://www.mlogs.com/) says: "
All you need is a cellphone with a camera. Take photos, add text messages and email them to your mLog email address." Get your pix online in a moment with the service. The
E-Media TidBits weblog (
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31) asks why more journalists are not already using this kind of innovation to do new kinds of reporting.
Posted by belinda at
12:54 PM
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Comments (0)
August 18, 2003
More on RSS
More info on the RSS/syndication of news and web logs is in
Dan Gillmor's Ejournal on Silicon Valley.com at
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/001285.shtml. Gillmor uses
RSS reader software to get news, online information and newsletters, bypassing email and Web surfing. He suggests, among other things, that PR people use it to get their message out instead of bombarding the inboxes of busy journalists with email junk. Time to get with the program?
Posted by belinda at
02:35 PM
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It was only a matter of time ...
Can you make a living out of blogging? The
Economist has a look at the topic in its piece,
Golden blogs: blogging, to the horror of some, is trying to go commercial, at
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1994135. Apparently, the small, tight-knit group of readers a blog can attract look like dollar signs to advertisers seeking niche markets.
Posted by belinda at
01:11 PM
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Comments (0)
August 12, 2003
Do you syndicate?
If you're a blogger, you may well allow your entries to be syndicated for news aggregator services. (If you use blogging software such as
MoveableType, syndication is easy.) News sites need to be syndicatable too, so that headline aggregators can come along and suck up their content. The technology is
Rich
Site
Summary (aka Really Simple Syndication or
RSS for short). If you don't know about it yet, it's about time you did. Read a few tips at the excellent
Lockergnome's RSS page (
http://rss.lockergnome.com/). If you are interested in what's available via RSS, look at
NewsIsFree. You will need an RSS reader, such as
AmphetaDesk (available from
http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/) to translate the feeds into headlines.
Posted by belinda at
12:04 PM
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July 25, 2003
Media blog, media futures
New Directions for News has a glossy brochure on the thirteen forces shaping media at
http://www.ndn.org/webdata/Documents/36/13Forces11.pdf. Worth a look. The site has also launched a weblog, called
Fast Forward, (
http://www.ndn.org/blog/blog.aspx) which will cover the "
media-centric life and the forces shaping the use of news, information and media".
Posted by belinda at
12:50 PM
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Comments (0)
July 02, 2003
Libel cover
Bloggers who republish potentially libellous information gleaned elsewhere have been protected from being sued by a new court ruling in the US. According to
Online Journalism Review, "
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 24th that First Amendment protections against libel will be extended to information that is republished through outlets like e-mail lists and weblogs."
Wired News has the story at
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59424,00.html.
Posted by belinda at
10:10 AM
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Comments (0)
June 20, 2003
Growing your own job
Mark Glaser, a columnist at
Online Journalism Review, has written a piece called
One-Man Blogs Prove There Is Money to Be Made by Online Journals, which should give aid and encouragement to those who want to make themselves heard online and earn a buck in the process. Successful blogs sum up news, provide links, throw in some commentary and often do some useful original reporting. Read the full piece at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1055879147.php. If you want to see how it's done, Glaser's column this week rates the
most influential blogs at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1056050270.php.
Posted by belinda at
02:29 PM
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June 05, 2003
Blogs - a protester's best friend?
The media were all over the recent
G8 summit in France. So were bloggers, many of whom blogged live from the protests and submitted photographs captured by their mobile phones. Blogs were a way of presenting the different viewpoints of demonstrators which were largely ignored by a media more interested in scuffles and conflict.
Wired News has the story at
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59086,00.html/wn_ascii.
Posted by belinda at
10:13 AM
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Comments (0)
June 02, 2003
Salam Pax at the Guardian
The UK
Guardian has signed up
Salam Pax, the blogger from Baghad and author of the
Where is Raed? blog, as a twice-weekly columnist.
Wired News has the story at
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59057,00.html/wn_ascii
Posted by belinda at
11:17 AM
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Comments (0)
May 08, 2003
Salam Pax is back
Salam Pax has posted a new entry to his "Where is Raed ?" Baghdad weblog. Read it at
http://www.dear_raed.blogspot.com.
Posted by belinda at
03:17 PM
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Comments (0)
Outlets for political steam in the UK
In a bid to find out what the punters are thinking, and to help them engage with issues politically, the BBC plans to launch
iCan, a site "designed to help citizens investigate issues that concern them, find others who share those concerns and provide advice and tools for organizing and engaging in the political
process," according to
Wired News. The story is at
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58715,00.html.
The BBC introduced the iCan concept at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in Santa Clara, California (
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2003/view/e_sess/3711). The BBC plans to assign journalists to monitor the online community for potential news stories.
Posted by belinda at
10:05 AM
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Comments (0)
April 29, 2003
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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Comments (0)
April 04, 2003
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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Comments (0)
March 27, 2003
The Where is Raed? blog
Everyone's talking about this blog from Iraqi nom-de-plume
Salam Pax - is it authentic? and so on. The UK
Guardian (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/) is running a text version on its own site so they obviously think so. Make up your own mind about this (ordinary, but extraordinary) blogger from Baghad at
http://dearraed.blogspot.com/.
Posted by journoz at
09:19 AM
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Comments (0)
March 25, 2003
Another Iraq war blog
An
OZCAR list member has sent in a link for another useful blog on the current war.
Things of Shock and Awe gathers together links to information sources on the conflict. Find it at
http://thingsofshockandawe.blogspot.com/. One of the links is to the English language version of
Al Jazeera - worth a look at
http://english.aljazeera.net/.
Posted by journoz at
09:00 AM
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March 24, 2003
Gamer than I am
I can think of safer places but many intrepid people are blogging from Baghdad. MSNBC has the story and list of links to Iraq war blogs at
http://www.msnbc.com/news/809307.asp?cp1=1. Have a look at the
BBC group web log (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/2870361.stm), and others such as the CyberJournalist.net war blog (
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/features/iraqwarblog.html), the Blogs of War (http://www.blogsofwar.com/
), and others. Increasingly, US citizens are turning to these sites and to foreign media for news.
Wired has that story at
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58056,00.html.
Posted by journoz at
12:19 PM
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March 14, 2003
Blogs as journalism
On
Online Journalism Review is another two-parter on blogging by J.D. Lasica. The first,
Blogging as a Form of Journalism, covers the origins and uses of Web logs (blogs for short). Part two,
Weblogs: A New Source of News covers the use of blogs for breaking news and other journalism. Find part one at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017958873.php and part two at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017958782.php.
Posted by journoz at
11:13 AM
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Comments (0)
March 05, 2003
UK Guardian web log
The Guardian has a web log for current issues at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/. You will find good sections and links on Iraq and the blog has a searchable archive.
Posted by journoz at
09:36 AM
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Comments (0)
December 02, 2002
Blogging for bucks
Most bloggers blog for the love of it, but Meg Hourihan thinks it's time for the paid blogger to emerge. Read her piece
Blogging for Dollars: Giving Rise to the Professional Blogger at
http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/2629
Posted by journoz at
11:37 AM
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Comments (0)
November 01, 2002
Webcast of When bloggers commit journalism
The webcast of the UC Berkeley seminar
When bloggers commit journalism is at
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/events/weblogs/.
For those who prefer the print, use the OJR summary at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/lasica/1032910520.php.
Posted by journoz at
12:33 PM
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Comments (0)
October 28, 2002
Arts & Letters Daily is back
Arts & Letters Daily went temporarily off air but has now been bought by the
Chronicle of Higher Education and is back in business at
http://www.aldaily.com/. For readers who switched over to
http://www.philosophyandliterature.com/ while it was down, it's time to switch back as the philosophy and literature page is no longer being updated.
Posted by journoz at
11:41 AM
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October 22, 2002
When bloggers commit journalism
Find this UC Berkeley panel discussion about blogs and journalists at
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/lasica/1032910520.php.
Posted by journoz at
11:44 AM
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