End of the World (News of the World that is!)

James Murdoch announced today that this Sundays' News of the World will be its last ever edition.

As an aspiring journalist, the unravelling of this story has kept my attention. I was shocked when I heard the announcement that after 168 years, the newspaper was finally coming to an end.

Its current editor Colin Myler described it as "the saddest day of my professional career".

With the tabloid facing accusations of hacking numerous phones over many years, including politicians, celebrities, and arguably the most shocking - victims of crime and their families.
Earlier today, before the announcement of the newspapers closure, the Met police said they were investigating 4,000 possible targets of the hacking scandal.

There was outrage early this week when it was revealed that murdered girl - Milly Dowler had her phone hacked by an investigator working for the News of the World.

In 2002, Glenn Mulcaire hacked into Milly Dowler's voicemail, going as far as to delete some of the messages, giving her family false hope that it was her deleting them.
At this time the newspaper's editor was Rebekah Brooks, but now currently holds the position of News International's chief executive, although many are calling for her to resign, with many staff members finding it unfair that they're jobs have been sacrificed, while she is able to keep her position. Particularly as she was in charge throughout the phone scandals, while mopst of the staff were not around during that time, and some staff feel that if she had resigned, the paper would have been saved.

The newspaper also announced today that this week's issue would have no advertisements. This came after a number of companies (such as Sainsburies, Halifax, Virgin Holidays and O2) dropped thier connections with tabloid.

Many 'News of the World' staff were said to have burst into tears and gasped in shock when the news was broke to them by Brooks and Murdoch. The stagg have been told that they are free to speak to the media, although many will be careful wih the future of thier careers currently unclear
After the staff were informed, Brooks was asked to leave by the current editor Colin Myler. He then addressed his staff, only being given the news just 20 minutes before them.

A few questions have crossed my mind since hearing the news. Such as what will be the papers final front page. Will it simply be an apology to those they've hurt and wronged?
Also, with no advertising, how will they present they're final piece? It is certainly a good way to ensure this Sunday's edition sells a large number of copies. In the build up to the announcement, a petition spread through Twitter, urging people to not purchase this Sunday's edition in protest.

I've also wondered if this could this be an ideal opportunity for a company such as News International to launch a fully digital Sunday news provider?

Sky news have reported that the internet domain name thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered on July 5 to a company called Media Spring.

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Fact Mongering Online - New Media Reporting

I have started reading a book edited together by Julia Hobsbawm (Britain's first professor of Public Relations at the London College of Communication). The book contains a number of 'wide-ranging and thought-provoking essays' and explores various issues involving journalists and new media. I hope to keep you up to date on my thoughts regarding the opinions and observations expressed in this book.

In this blog I'll be talking about 'Fact Mongering Online' which was written by Emily Bell. She has worked for The Observer and The Guardian, which included setting up 'mediaguardian.co.uk' in 2000 before becoming 'editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited in 2001 which won her a number of awards (including a Webby for Best Newspaper on the World Wide Web).

In this essay, Emily describes the 'limitless connectivity' of the internet as 'the single most empowering publishing technology since Gutenberg invented the printing press'. However, she felt it was vilified 'as a home of the con artist and the paedophile'.

She claims that for many years in the 1990's the internet had a bad image, seen as somewhere that made the 'untalented' rich, and that lead to crashes from sleep deprived 'internet addicts'.

This shows (to some extent) why the transformation from newspaper to news online has been such a gradual process. It has taken a lot of time to establish a sense of trust into what is published on the net.

However, there was a clear plus - the ability to spread news across the world very quickly, but the danger of course was 'Chinese whispers' - the idea that reports would be altered and slowly distance from the true events.

Emily claims that the posting of 'false facts' would affect our perception of truth, and make it difficult for those online to decipher which is which.

With old media, the truth could be assured simply because of the source - a newspaper. Although some would argue that the old media lead to a one-dimensional view, and now access online provides alternate sources and news providers and give us a chance to hear broader opinions and reports.

Emily then speaks about 'electronic news' not necessarily being as dangerous as old media. An electronic reported can get edited and you can apologise for mistakes almost instantly, and while that news is accessible globally, the damage wouldn't be any greater than a printed copy distributed to just one nation, where you have to wait to correct yourself.

Although, the expanding world of the internet means that errors need to be corrected even more urgently because of technology such as RSS feeds, this means that reports become instantly accessible to so many people.

Emily also mentions a phrase for journalists to remember, it was made by journalist Dan Gillmor –

‘There is always someone closer to the story than you.’

Dan Gillmor

And this quote makes many points in my opinion. One suggesting that as journalists we cant rely only on our opinions and what we see, it's always important to speak with those closest to the story so that we get a completely honest and truthful opinion and viewpoint.
Another(that Emily points out) is that with publishing online now being so accessible, somebody(bloggers) with more insight than you will be able to post thier views with more detail, emotion and insight. Often these people will not be driven by money, but simply an enjoyable hoppy.

One question that needs to be asked is whether a lot of 'citizen journalists' are merely reporting the same as professional journalists, or are they really providing an alternate view. Even if they are - is it truthful and backed up by facts and sources? Thier are millions of blogs online, it's difficult for them to stand out, and the fact that many do it as a hobby suggests that the information is not neccessarily deeply sourced. Is this the advantage that the mainstream news reporters have?

Mass communication is the future of news reporting, the likelyhood of incorrect reporting circulating is obviously more common, but the ability to correct it has also become a lot easier.
Looking at ths transfer to focussing on mass communcation and the online world, Emily Bell ends her piece by stating '...there is no reason why truth should be the casualty of this particular revolution'.

Special thanks to Emily Bell and Julia Hobsbawm

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Journalists on Twitter

A number of Journalists now use twitter, it has become a great way of releasing stories as well as discovering stories.
Through things like hashtags(#) and 'trending topics' it can be easy to locate opinions on certain topics and news stories.
Thier are a number of top journalists and bloggers from a number of newspapers, news broadcasters and more on Twitter.

I have spent some time locating some of the top journalistic tweeters and have composed a list that will show all of thier tweets as soon as they are posted.
This is accessible to anyone at this link - http://twitter.com/#!/danielmackrell/journalists

Here you can read all the very up-to-date postings of some of the professions top reporters and get updates on thier latest posts, comments and links to the newest news stories.
It doesn't require you to sign up to Twitter to access and read the tweets, although if you are a member of twitter, you can follow the list, and all journalist tweets would be added directly to your twitter feed.
I will continue to add more and more top journalists when I find them, and if you know of any, then let me know and I will include them.

What the list includes
It has a variety of journalists. Ranging from sports, technology, politics, and economic experts, as well as editors, presenters, sports presenters and bloggers. Thier are also links to the latest online news reports and alerts from the likes of Sky News, The Mirror, The Telegraph. And thier is also a useful Tweeter that reports the latest journalism jobs available.

It currently features just over 100 tweeters, but only has currently 3 'followers' but one of those is Chris Choi who is a consumer editor for ITV news and has worked on Radio 4, Watchdog and Five Live.

I hope this will be useful to some of you.

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ICorrect - Journalists Beware!

A new website has been set up by Sir David Tang called ICorrect.

This has lead to a number of celebrities signing onto the website to correct claims that they feel were unjustified. However, if you wanted to join this website, you would be joining what seem's to be becoming a special 'ICorrect club'. For an individual it costs $1,000 a year, and $5,000 a year for a business.You must also provide a reference eiter from an existing ICorrect member or 'A lawyer or representative who can vouch for your identity'

Recent corrections come from high profile figures and companies such as Kate Moss, Kevin Spacey, Michael Caine, Chelsea Football Club and IMG.

Although, figures such as Cherie Blaire seem to be using it more frequently than others. So far she has 'corrected' the Daily Mail, The Daily Express and The Mirror

One thing i did notice, is that Sir David Tang has used his website as much as anyone with one correction being -

From the Daily Mail -- 'David Tang is a creep'
Sir David Tangs' Correction -- 'This is greatly exaggerated'

Another interesting correction was from Michael Caine -

The Accusation - "Not many people know that." For the past 40 years, I have always been associated with these words.

His Correction - I have never said "not many people know that". Peter Sellers said it when he impersonated my voice on his telephone answering machine. His impersonation was: "This is Michael Caine, Peter Sellers is out. Not many people know that." I do not mind something clever being attributed to me, but I do mind something stupid that I did not say or do.

This website will certainly allow celebrities to feel like they have more of a voice against the publications of the press, but whether the website will truly take off is yet to be seen. Although, it will be interesting to monitor ICorrect over the next few months to see how often a new correction is published.

If successful it could place more pressure on the press to post correctly and fairly, as well as websites such as Wikipedia which is constantly slated for incorrect information about public figures.

You can see all the 'corrections' on the website here - http://www.icorrect.com/

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Panama and Egyptian Journalists

Being a Journalist can be a very hard life, but it seems here in the Uk the laws are generally quite favourable to us and despite a slightly tainted image in the eyes of the public, we don't have the worst reputation in the country(i'm looking at you politicians). I hope to make this a regular blog post where i keep you up to date in the world of Journalism.

The Republic of Panama is the southernmost country of Central America.
It is believed that around half of all Journalists in Panama have been involved in a defamation charge. If found guilty, they face a 1 year prison sentence, or a large fine.
The weaker laws in Panama(compared with the UK) means that weath and power have a larger voice.

has spoken against the political power which has affectedte rghts of journalists. An example given is of two tv reporters recieving a prison sentence despite thier reports on government documents(regarding corruption inthe immagration offices) being truthful and 'accurate'.

Very detailed, extensive coverage of the story can be found here if your interested in learning more about Panama, including a call for an asylum.

Egypt's Journalists hope for less censorship
Throughout Mubaraks reign in egypt, the journalists had restrictions and censorship which they fee they may finally be free of.

Jean-Francois Julliard, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general, hopes for "the creation of a real democracy in which journalists...are no longer afraid to express their views, in which diversity of ideas and opinions no longer entails any risk of imprisonment, and in which the right to receive and impart news and information is truly respected.”

Mahamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator, explained that after Mubarak's announcement 'a military officer went up to the reporter and handed him a professional camera with a massive lens'.

Mubarak's resingation lead to journalists(such as blogger Abdul Kareen) being released. He was originally expected to serve 4 years in prison for what he was writing, but his freedom shows signs of hope for journalists in Egypt.

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