Journalism, leadership and the realities of change
In my reporting and newsdesking days I sometimes got asked by a caller ringing in with a tale if there was any hope of us paying for the information. In the regionals I've worked on, we never paid for information although if the story was likely to sell, and good enough, we'd help arrange syndication... Continue Reading →
Anyone who follows me here or on Twitter may have picked up on my 'like it but keep forgetting to use it' attitude towards FriendFeed. I mean, I see the purpose of it, but I'm always forgetting to log in to the website - it's not an essential part of my network yet. So I... Continue Reading →
I'm speaking at the Art of Digital event in Liverpool tomorrow. The topic of the learning lab is The Personal which (according to the accompanying blurb) is "all about the role and influence of people and organisations. We have recently seen the emergence of the self at the heart of online communication, placing the individual... Continue Reading →
Talk about making your own headlines! It's true; the deputy business editor of the Post & Echo was caught in crossfire this weekend and - like the news trouper he is - tweeted what was happening to him, from the ambulance.In a nutshell, (teetotal) Tony McDonough was unfortunate enough to be downing a diet Coke... Continue Reading →
Twitter, is an integral part of my job as a journalist. So it was something of a surprise to learn this week there are still some journalism colleges that don't show its potential benefits to their students.I was talking to some J-students this week about how newspapers and journalists can use Twitter when one of... Continue Reading →
The 'Newspapers are dead' discussion looks set to drag on (and on) without any real conclusion or particularly illuminating insights but there is a side debate that does interest me: Do we still need newsrooms?I read the Journalism Iconoclast blog regularly and was intrigued by a post there recently that suggested: Telecommuting can replace the... Continue Reading →
I've found my Twitter followers are growing quite rapidly recently, probably as connectors such as Mr Tweet and Twellow become more widely used.I follow quite of lot of them back (unless they only update via an automatic feed telling Twitter they've blogged) as I like having a widening conversation circle - but there are a... Continue Reading →
This video of Scouser Darren Farley running through his LFC impressions, filmed by a mate on a mobile phone, went up on YouTube on 10 October 2008...And within just 10 days this has happened...Today, searching Google, the man is all over the web; from fan sites and bloggers, to the Post & Echo websites, Sky... Continue Reading →
I suspect most of us find it comforting to work to a deadline; it's satisfying to cross a mental finishing line and feel a job is completed. But a deadline is a also a mindset... and that's not the most useful thing for a journalist to possess right now.Dictionary.net has this to say about the... Continue Reading →
Finding intelligent, reasoned reader comments on newspapers' online sites can sometimes feel like a Snark hunt. I've noted my thoughts on why newspapers can fail to encourage a flourishing online forum community before, and had some interesting feedback both here and via Twitter and Plurk.Personally I don't believe newspapers forums will ever succeed unless time... Continue Reading →
Alison Gow | Building the New 