It’s not that I’m pessimistic about the future for good journalists. Quite the opposite, in fact. Journalism isn’t dying; it’s just in a period of extreme volatility. And in any time of volatility, there’s huge room for opportunity. But you’re not going to learn how to exploit it in a stuffy classroom taught by people who got there by working at newspapers.

In a nod to the times Multimedia Journalism students from UT Austin’s School of Journalism are live blogging the event throughout the weekend.

As the Symposium is still going here are some of the most interesting points raised.

In this video James Moroney III, publisher and CEO of The Dallas Morning News talks about the challenges for ‘legacy’ media moving online.

In a challenging and provocative keynote speech Steven Kydd of Demand Media discussed the controversy of their first year in business.

We’re not trying to create full-time jobs, we’re trying to give freelancers a great opportunity for content production. If you ask any of our writers, they all have very different reasons for why Demand works for them.

Researchers Robert Bergland, Lisa Crawford, Sarah Noe, David Hon conducted an interesting, although unfinished, study of interactivity which shows that online newspapers in the UK are leading the way in new media production.

One of the many criticisms of online news is its lack of serendipity.

The argument is simple but important, in newspapers of old (the ones on paper) editors had control over the placement and prioritisation of articles and images. The more important they felt the story was the more prominent its place on the page. Obvious as it may see editors had a more important role than that- they had the power to educate readers by combining different stories on the same page.

Online that power does not exist. While editors could include selected content on the homepage encouraging users to read articles they might otherwise have not became (speaking as a web developer) more of a site design challenge than editorial one.
But few people regularly read the homepage. Search engines direct users to articles independently of the rest of the paper. Readers become editors searching for and choosing content that they agree with on platforms they approve of. In this system reader’s view and opinions are not so much challenged but reinforced.

Google News has offered customisation based on personal preferences and web history for some time. Google’s reach, however powerful, was limited to the placement and order of content on its news search site.

With “Open Graph” Facebook wants to customise the web according to user’s profiles. What this will mean for news media who sign up for the site is the ability to customise content according to readers Facebook profiles.

A visitor to CNN or The New York Times who’s Facebook content mentions sports will be served with sports content rather than editorially chosen content. Editors further loose their ability to challenge the reader. To quote Lord Reith;

He who prides himself on giving what he thinks the public wants is often creating a fictitious demand for low standards which he will then satisfy.

The challenge for online news is to decide if it wants to educate, entertain or inform.

In an update to the company’s own website Google detailed the number of requests it has received from governments for the removal of information from data stored on its servers.

In a posting accompanying the website Google says “Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products.”

Of the 10 requests made by the Irish government Google says it complied with about 50% of them although the website does not provide more information about what information the government asked be removed.

Ireland is one of 44 countries, including China, Russia, Turkey, listed on the Google site who requested the removal of data.

The Brazilian government who made the most number of requests at 291 of which 82.5% were fully of partially complied with.

Germany made the highest number of removal requests of any European state at 188.  The company complied with 94.1% of the German requests of which the majority the majority, 109, were court mandated.

The United States government made 123 removal requests of which 80.5% were successful.

With a mix of informal language, citizen journalist as well as staff reporter content live blog are created in a similar way to a Twitter account. The page is updated through the day with numerous short updates on a specific topic, often with rich media embedded.

Last week’s eruption of the volcano under Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland saw RTE, The Guardian, BBC News and The New York Times report the eruption’s aftermath in this “live article” format.

The challenge with news blogs and live articles come from the mailable nature of online content. Live articles can be seen as a ‘twitterisation’ of news media. It places reporters and media organisations in difficult situations- users want real-time information (look at the response to the death of Michael Jackson) but verifying such information is difficult to do at speed. While this is an issue for 24 news stations it becomes a greater issue for blogs as content remains online as long as its publisher exists.

Some 77% of TV newsrooms have a Twitter account while 36% us it “constantly.” Only 13% say they do not use social media at all.

Papper: Radio News Does not Make Use of Social Media from Poynter Institute on Vimeo.

just noticed the car is covered in a fine black dust #ashtag #iceland


3:42 PM

Reactions from across Europe to the Iceland volcano, via BBC iPlayer http://bit.ly/cSI6uw #ashtag
1:33 PM

Will the Iceland Volcano Change the Climate? | LiveScience http://su.pr/2sKuRQ
1:17 PM

Apparently John Cleese is stuck in Norway, poor guy #iceland #ashtag http://nyti.ms/9bFDVY (video a bit further down)

11:10 PM

Amazing @AP image of the actual ash cloud in the air over iceland http://bit.ly/dm6CBe
11:06 PM

@AP interactive shows how the Iceland volcano is affecting Europe, and how the ash can endanger a plane: http://bit.ly/anNfWa
11:04 PM

Serious question, what is the environmental impact of the volcano (fewer (ie no) planes in the air but lots of ash & toxins)?
10:38 PM

Dublin Airport Arrivals http://bit.ly/ca6TsM and Departures http://bit.ly/aMq7RY for the next 24 hours #ashtag #iceland #volcano
10:19 PM

Live camera trained on Eyjafjallajökull volcano in iceland http://bit.ly/bms7fU #ashtag
10:07 PM

Norwegian Government Run from an iPad During Icelandic Volcano http://su.pr/9B2zvB
3:17 PM

@NASA
FYI: Here’s what this Iceland volcano was doing earlier this month, courtesy NASA’s Earth Observing-1.
4:00 PM

@andrewgerrard Amazing satellite photo of the volcanic ash cloud over northern Europe: RT @juliansaunders
8:48 AM

@camposova Crippled by the awesome… RT @laverneshow RT @HJonesy Wow. Volcanic eruption *and* the Northern Lights. in ONE photo http://bit.ly/bYMKZv
12:56 AM

Over 100 quakes in California in 24hrs,massive one in China, not to mention Haiti & Argentina & now 2 volcanoes erupt in Iceland in a month…
11:50 PM

A good excuse to try out Google’s new twitter search
11:45 PM

Some other live articles on the Iceland Volcano

RTE News,

BBC News,

The Guardian,

The New York Times (excellent) Lede Blog,
11:44 PM

Short Sharp Science: How volcanic ash threatens aircraft http://su.pr/572mwt
11:00 PM

Just listening to the weather on Radio 1-apparently it will be cloudy tomorrow…
10:08 PM

Irish Health Service Executive – Health effects of Icelandic volcanic ash http://bit.ly/cq0GeS #ashtag
7:06 PM

Satellite image of the Iceland volcano ash cloud over Ireland and the UK http://bit.ly/9T0UQP #ashtag
6:55 PM

so who should we sacrifice to the volcano?…I have a few ideas
4:53 PM

@SkyNewsBreak: No non-emergency flights will be allowed in or out of the UK before 6am tomorrow at the earliest – air traffic control

Amazing footage showing how the volcano is affecting Iceland itself http://bit.ly/dfkNeM #ashtag

2:46 PM

Volcano in Iceland is the top search terms on Google http://bit.ly/d7Ratd
2:42 PM

@newscientist : tonight’s sunset will be apocalyptic as a result of the catchily named Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls volcano
2:14 PM

Live Google Maps overlay of flights across in Europe- none over UK, Ireland, Norway, Finland or Iceland http://bit.ly/99pmfY
12:48 PM

I don’t think its a volcano at all, it’s just Iceland burning their money for warmth #ashtag
12:36 PM

@qikipedia Some people think that the 1783 #ashcloud caused a famine that in turn caused the French Revolution. #ashtag (via @akadallas)
12:09 PM

Guardian’s live blog of the Icelandic ash eruption http://bit.ly/aA0QeM
11:31 AM

Twitter user @dododan says “Britain hit by giant Icelandic metaphor (by The Guardian): http://bit.ly/9gLkD6”
11:27 AM

I’m just surprised there is a Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre http://bit.ly/b9Zfwl
10:57 AM

@metoffice News Release: Icelandic volcano eruption http://bit.ly/9pOR0X
10:41 AM

Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre – forecast for Icelandic eruption http://bit.ly/cnvKVE
10:12AM

According to Mr Anderson

The internet is not like trying to drink from a firehose but rather like trying to drink from Niagara Falls. For any media professional trying to remain up to speed on digital content trends, it is often overwhelming. I’ve had to develop a lot of methods and constantly change the tools I use to manage this torrent of information. I’ve mentioned Popurls before as an easy one-stop shop to follow internet buzz, and once registered you can personalise the site to show your favourite digital content sites first.

DCU's Hybrid Awards

By Piers Scott
As the awards season finally draws to a close there remains one more event on the calendar, The Hybrids. The Hybrid Awards, DCU’s annual multimedia awards, take place this Wednesday in The Venue.

According to the Media Production Society, who run the awards, this year saw 74 submissions across four categories.

The Hybrids, which are not in the X year, are designed to celebrate the best of DCU’s artistic and creative talents.

So, as our friends in the Media Production Society are busily preparing and decorating we thought we would have a look at some the pieces nominated this year.

There are a smaller number of websites up for Website of the year than usual this year. The MPS themselves have two sites up for nomination; their home site and their new DCU FM subsite. Irish blogger award nominated Steve Conlon is up for the gong for his personal blog while multimedia students Thomas Tennyson and Seamus Redmond are in the running for their Forest Gump minisite.

Style Soc's Fashion Show

DCU’s graphic designers are in out in force contesting the “Poster of the Year.”

Style Soc’s Fashion show continues it successful run with the Hybrids with another nomination this year.

However, under Claire Brown’s tenure Foto Soc has seen a huge improvement of their on campus posters with two nominations this year. Deirdre O’Sullivan, Roseanne Cronly, Diarmuid Hayes are also nominated for their poster designs.

Video

There is renewed interest in the video category with both the College View’s new TV channel and the several MPS members in contention for Entertainment Video of the year.

CVTV’s inaugural edition

Robert Babbington and Kevin Dolan are up for nomination for 10 steps to the perfect baked beans

The MPS are in the running for DCU TV News

Having placed third in the Skerries Solas Film awards Nicola Leddy, a second year communications student, is hoping for a nod this Wednesday.

Audio

DCU FM is hoping to round off its very successful year with few statuettes in the audio broadcasting categories.

Jenny May Finn and Kate Murphy are up for their audio series “Girls aren’t funny.”

While DCU FM's Newswire, which has been nominated for several smedia awards, is up for three awards in the News and Current Affairs Programme of the Year

The Hybrids Awards are on this Wednesday in the Hub from 6pm

But this does not mean that it always get it right.

In 2007 a Reuters photojournalist, Namir Noor-Eldeen, was killed in Iraq after being fired upon by a U.S. helicopter gunship. The photojournalists were among at least eight people killed in the same incident.

According to The Pentagon the military personnel mistook the journalists’ cameras for weapons and opened fire believing them to be ‘insurgents.’

This week the website WikiLeaks released a video that they claimed to have obtained from sources inside The Pentagon. The video shows the point-of-view of the camera mounted on the helicopter gun. It also shows the conversation between the military personnel on the aircraft and back at their Military Command HQ.

The video shows the gunship fire on the group of men, circle them and then fire again anyone still walking.

In The Guardian’s account of the video its article contains only one link. This is to the Wikileaks page http://collateralmurder.com/.

From a technical perspective (and from a search engine’s perspective) such a link in the body copy of a web document is read as a ‘recommendation’ by this site to the Wikileaks site. Therefore in this instance The Guardian is not only reporting the Wikileaks site but is actively recommending it as an authoritative site (there are very simply way to link to an external site without providing such a ‘recommendation’).

So are there implications to linking to other sites?

I’m not saying that The Guardian should not link to external content, it definitely should, but does new media praxis raise new ethical questions.

In this article there are three parties involved, WikiLeaks, Reuters and The Pentagon. I believe that liking to one of these.

I would make the argument that when a writer/blogger links to an article or document that are telling their readers that in order to understand full what I am saying you also need to understand this other important content.

In this case the reader would also need to understand The Pentagon’s and Reuters positions to fully understand the story. Of course free will plays a role in the online environment, users could if they wished search these sources on Google but if the journalist/blogger takes it upon themselves to provide this additional information should they not do so as fully and as transparently as possible?