Sándor Orbán remembers when the biggest problem faced by Eastern Europe’s media organizations was not being able to burn through dollars fast enough to please donors. Now, twenty years after the fall of the Wall, the funding is drying up just as truly serious challenges are emerging. “In those days – it’s difficult to believe…
Check out this story from the Winnipeg Free Press on dirty restaurants. It’s a great example of how far we have come in doing this kind of probing journalism. The earliest reporters doing the restaurant story, and I was one of them, had to fight long battles with government officials just to get the data. Jen…
La région des Laurentides compte un nouveau média: Webdo.ca, un portail indépendant dédié à la couverture de l’actualité laurentienne et des régions limitrophes. Ce nouveau journal en ligne s’engage à livrer à ses lecteurs une information pertinente et de qualité, à couvrir les initiatives régionales en matière de démocratie participative et d’implication citoyenne et de…
We’re all familiar with press freedom rankings, like Freedom House’s annual Freedom of the Press Index. But are they valid? This was the question of the day at the Central European University in Budapest. I’m here for a summer course in Media, Democratization and International Development put on by the CEU and the Annenberg School…
“Journalism Online, the brainchild of Court TV founder Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, has announced its first partnership, marking a step in the direction of enabling newspapers to charge for content on the Web.”
Editor & Publisher magazine completed a study that found newspapers who are reducing print editions are watching readers migrate to the paper’s website. “Following up on last week’s excellent report on the subtle disruptions caused by newspaper frequency changes, Editor & Publisher looks at the link between reduced frequency and online traffic. Its findings, while…
While YouTube has accepted various news-style reports and information from contributors, it has created a separate page to highlight reports and to teach people how to become citizen journalists. “Ever captured a natural disaster or a crime on your cell-phone camera? Filmed a political rally or protest, and then interviewed the participants afterward? Produced a…
“CBC has selected a comprehensive suite of Web content management solutions to build and manage its various online sites in support nationwide TV and radio initiatives.” What is most interesting about this announcement is the decentralization of IT to the regions, giving the local newsrooms more control over content.
[Updated June 30] On Sunday, June 21, Maziar Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian journalist and filmmaker working in Tehran, was taken into custody by men believed to be Iranian security officials. He was arrested at 7:00 on Sunday morning at the apartment he shares with his mother. A laptop and several videotapes were seized from the apartment.On…