The re-birth of the "beat": A hyperlocal online newsgathering model

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Journalism Practice, 6(5-6), 754 - 765, 2012, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17512786.2012.667279.Scholars have long lamented the death of the 'beat' in news journalism. Today's journalists generate more copy than they used to, a deluge of PR releases often keeping them in the office, and away from their communities. Consolidation in industry has dislodged some journalists from their local sources. Yet hyperlocal online activity is thriving if journalists have the time and inclination to engage with it. This paper proposes an exploratory, normative schema intended to help local journalists systematically map and monitor their own hyperlocal online communities and contacts, with the aim of re-establishing local news beats online as networks. This model is, in part, technologically-independent. It encompasses proactive and reactive news-gathering and forward planning approaches. A schema is proposed, developed upon suggested news-gathering frameworks from the literature. These experiences were distilled into an iterative, replicable schema for local journalism. This model was then used to map out two real-world 'beats' for local news-gathering. Journalists working within these local beats were invited to trial the models created. It is hoped that this research will empower journalists by improving their information auditing, and could help re-define journalists' relationship with their online audiences

Rethinking the practice of accountability journalism in the digital age. The inception and development of the first Portuguese university-based investigative journalism centre and whistleblowing platform

At a time of worrying change, when Western traditional media outlets appear to be engulfed by the collapse of the advertising-based business model and can hardly bear the strain brought about by new technologies, the present study identifies an increasing information deficit as regards quality accountability reporting. Taking up Duffield and Cokley’s challenge to change in response to the demands of the time, the present paper supports the development of VALQUIRIA, at https://valquiria.org, a transmedia, multiplatform investigative journalism project integrated in the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon. Valquíria, adopting a new sustainable media model, represents the very first attempt in Portugal to create a completely independent space for the education of investigative journalists, the assistance to foreign and local reporters, the production and diffusion of accountability reporting, technological products and innovative practices which can aid the profession. Featuring a vibrant crowd-sourcing and collaborative policy, its ultimate aim is to reinvigorate and enhance the practice of accountability journalism in Portugal, proving its urgency for preserving and guarding a healthy democracy. To change even more the traditional paradigm of public interest journalism, the project features a whistleblowing platform called PTLeaks: built in cooperation with the HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Human rights, it is the first Portuguese GlobaLeaks initiative applied to investigative journalism

The credibility of the news on social networking sites among Jordanian journalists

Social Networking Site (SNS) has become an important source of news for journalists in the process of obtaining information and publishing news and articles. Hence, the credibility of the news published on SNS is an important subject for study because journalists are competing with citizens in the dissemination of news. The validity of information on SNS is questionable. The focus of this research is identifying the concept of credibility and the prominent credibility standards that must apply in publishing of news. This study examined the relationship between traditional factors in media, acceptance to use of technology, interactive media, quality of news source, exposure to SNS, and scoop with the credibility of news. The questionnaire was distributed to 375 respondents from 1042 registered journalists in the Jordan Press Association (JPA) using simple random sampling. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to verify the relationships between the variables. The findings of the study largely support the hypothesized relationships proposed in the study model. The factors used in traditional media, such as journalism ethics, editorial policy rules and laws, demonstrates a positive association with the credibility of news published on SNS to maintain its standards. Reliance on media technology adversely affect the credibility of news. Interactive media and quality of source were found to have a positive relationship with the credibility of news, thus increasing the level of credibility when journalists use SNS as a source of news. The findings have implications for knowledge of theories in understanding the relationship between using SNS as a news source and its credibility. The practical contribution of this study will assist journalists in dealing with news on SNS, in order to develop the best journalism practices, and makes recommendation for future research directions

War Correspondents

At its outbreak, newspapers in the Allied and neutral democracies hoped to present vivid descriptions of the First World War. They were soon frustrated. Censorship obstructed the adventurous style of war reporting to which readers had grown accustomed. Belligerent governments wanted journalists to encourage enlistment and maintain home front morale. Many newspapers in Britain, France and America were content to behave as patriotic propagandists. All were constrained by rules and circumstances. War correspondents downplayed misery and extolled victory. Soldiers found their behavior hard to forgive. War reporting promoted the belief that newspapers could not be trusted to tell the truth

Being Omnipresent To Be Almighty: The Importance of The Global Web Evidence for Organizational Expert Finding

Modern expert nding algorithms are developed under the assumption that all possible expertise evidence for a person is concentrated in a company that currently employs the person. The evidence that can be acquired outside of an enterprise is traditionally unnoticed. At the same time, the Web is full of personal information which is sufficiently detailed to judge about a person's skills and knowledge. In this work, we review various sources of expertise evidence out-side of an organization and experiment with rankings built on the data acquired from six dierent sources, accessible through APIs of two major web search engines. We show that these rankings and their combinations are often more realistic and of higher quality than rankings built on organizational data only

Mobile Journalism Skills of Field Reporters of TV Channels

The article aimed to identify the level of mobile journalism skills that field reporters in Jordanian TV channels have. It adopted the survey methodology and applied it to an available sample of (56) reporters. The results showed that self-skills (most important are journalistic sense and observation skills and skills of adapting to smartphones) came first. Professional skills (most important are the skills of communicating with sources, and the skills of transmitting, publishing, and distributing media materials) came second. While technical skills (such as the skill of searching for and verifying information, images and videos, and skills of protecting and securing information) came in the third and final order, being the least of the skills for field reporters. The results also revealed that the most important ethical standards for mobile journalism for reporters are avoiding fabricating journalistic stories, respecting religions, and preserving the confidentiality of sources. Finally, the results concluded that there is a correlation between mobile journalism skills and commitment to ethical standards in the production of media content via mobile

News media performance and social responsibility in transitional societies: a case study of tabloidisation in Taiwan

The development of the news media in western societies coincided with the formation of a fully democratic polity based on universal suffrage, and from the outset the press and later broadcasting were assigned a central role in providing the information and argumentative resources for citizenship and in checking for abuses of power. But the commercial news media were also industries, increasingly financed by the sale of advertising, and commentators saw the search for audience maximisation moving news towards sensation. While these developments gathered momentum over many decades in the West, in Taiwan they have been compressed into two, as the country has experienced a rapid triple transformation: from authoritarian, single-party rule, to democratic politics based on multi party competition; from a state managed economy to a market-driven economy; and from a restricted media system to an open one marked by fierce competition. Many observers see this highly compressed process of change, coupled with the relative weakness of civil society, generating a particularly aggressive form of tabloidisation, a withdrawal from social responsibility and ethics, and news system ill adapted to serving the needs of a still consolidating democracy. This argument empirically through three detailed case studies of key stories places them in the context of the general changes reshaping Taiwanese news media and the original arguments over tabloidisation in the West, and concludes by exploring the possibilities for reform in the future