Australia the place for those wanting to sue for libel

Steven P:rice: London is known as the libel capital of the world. But I was chatting to Melbourne Law School professor Andrew Kenyon last week, and he said that there is a country whose defamation laws are even more plaintiff-friendly than England’s: Australia. READ MORE>

Privacy and reputation

Steven Price: Two interesting developments in the tug-of-war between privacy and defamation. READ MORE>

Juries have strange attitude to reputation in libel trials

Steven Price: The job of the defendant in a defamation jury trial (often the media) is to convince the jury that ordinary reasonable people will not think less of the plaintiff after being exposed to the material alleged to be defamatory.

You might think it will probably be enough to convince the jurors themselves, who no doubt regard themselves as ordinary reasonable people, that the material wasn’t defamatory.

And you’d be wrong. READ MORE>

And Bing was its name-o

By Virginia McMillan

I CAN’T say that I want Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Microsoft to force me to make Bing a regular part of internet life. Is this the best the two giants can come up with to get reach and revenue?

I searched for NewsWire on Google (New Zealand) and it was the top-ranked site; Bing couldn’t find us in its first 20 returns… It’s not the only “fail” I’ve had using Bing.

I am amazed that Murdoch appears to consider his media empire can do without Google. The strategy, explained here by columnist Dan Kennedy  in The Guardian, goes against the inherent chaos of the internet and Google’s excellence at navigating its (almost) entirety.

Perhaps free, easily searchable content is the wrong model for mass media (and I am not so sure about that). But even then, it doesn’t mean making the content harder to find is the right model.

Then again, I might be struck down by lightning, and Bing might overwhelm Google in popularity in the next few years.  Stranger things have happened.

Top 50 journalism blogs

Where to next in citizen journalism, multi-media, social media, journalism education? Check it out here.

Hat tip: Jim MacMillan via Daniel Simmons Ritchie.

Young people enticed to become newspaper readers

By Virginia McMillan

Editors Weblog alerts us to the arrival of the promised French government-subsidised newspaper project for young people, Mon Journal Offert (My Free Paper).

The site invites readers to get involved using social media tools and offers four newspapers from which young people can choose, to subscribe to free for a year.

Meanwhile, check out this week’s loss of thousands of readers from New Zealand newspapers and magazines. The minus signs in the right hand column tell the story starkly.

The time-frame covered by this Roy Morgan research reflects the deepest part of a recession that appears to have eased somewhat. Many challenges for print remain.

Note that down-to-earth mags like New Zealand Gardener and Healthy Food Guide grew their readership strongly. Newspapers to escape the flight of readers were provincials such as the Gisborne Herald.

Hosting Isaac Mao: social media reframed

By Virginia McMillan

Whitireia Community Polytechnic journalism programme has welcomed Chinese blogger Isaac Mao into our classroom these past couple of days.

Photo: Carl Suurmond

Isaac (right) is a pre-eminent international expert on social media, having learned the power of these tools in a sharply more difficult political climate than the one we operate in, here in New Zealand. As well as knowledge in his head, Isaac has fire in his belly and courage in his heart. He is an inspiring speaker.

Isaac trains Chinese journalists to make the most of social media tools. He says using them, journos stay close to the community that’s screened out by the editorial hierarchy in mainstream media (or by state censorship, as in China).

Here’s how Julie Starr, of Wintec in Hamilton, summarises part of Isaac’s talk to her students.

Twitter and Trafigura – a big win for citizen journalism and social media

FURTHER UPDATE: Twitter played a pivotal role in The Guardian’s win against a ban on covering an important parliamentary question.

Tweeters tracked down the suppressed question – relating to restrictions on reporting about toxic sludge dumping by British company Trafigura – as well as legal argument to help the newspaper.

“Trafigura” quickly became one of the most searched terms in Europe, helped along by re-tweets by Stephen Fry and his 830,000-odd followers, writes Alan Rusbridger in The Guardian. Trafigura threw in the towel. Powerful stuff.

The Guardian is gagged – and can’t say why

UPDATE: Gag is lifted.

On a personal note, last year’s Whitireia Journalism guest tutor Dave Lee, now with the BBC, tweeted earlier today that he was following this saga.

The Guardian reports here that it’s being prevented from reporting facts about a parliamentary question. The paper can’t even explain why it’s being gagged except that a sue-happy law firm is involved. Read all about it!

Luke’s top ten tips for recording and editing audio

By Luke Appleby

WELCOME to another edition of Luke’s top ten tips – this time I’m focusing on recording audio for journalistic purposes, and the best tricks for editing and using the stuff.

If your chosen field is that of a TV reporter, radio reporter, filming enthusiast, citizen reporter or a just general all-round multimedia journo for web and what-have-you, you will quickly identify the need to collect good quality audio for broadcast. There are a few pitfalls for young players, so I’m going to give you a few tips on what to do, and what not to do.