• J-Source

    Banish “off the record” briefings

    A movement among U.S. media organizations and journalists seeks “to end the practice whereby officials insist their remarks remain ‘off the record’ at large public events,” reports  Editors Weblog. It excerpts a column by Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander: “Standing in front of 300 people and declaring your words to be ‘off-the-record’ is frustrating for…

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    Private data sent to media list

    An employee at a British Columbia bank inadvertently emailed a list of hundreds of people’s insurance claims to 75 provincial media outlets, reported CBC. This is a classic blooper, one that seems to be repeated every few years by some hapless worker. I worked as a desker at Canadian Press in Halifax some 20 years…

  • J-Source

    Dream job/fantasies

    For many of us, journalism was once the ultimate dream job. (And even in dire times, it still is for a lucky or plucky few.) Now the dream has turned to fantasizing — about alternative employment. Fantasies such as, writes the New York Times’s Judith Warner after surveying her colleagues, turning a Master’s of Journalism…

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    An American Radicals brand of investigative journalism

    I.F. Stone made significant contributions to investigative journalism at a time in the U.S. when holding powerful institutions to account was seen as unpatriotic and disloyal, writes Cecil Rosner in this review of D.D. Guttenplan’s new biography American Radical The Life and Times of I.F. Stone.

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    Live Global Forum – The Future of Media (webinar)

    Journalism, New Technologies and Media Development: The Transformation of News in the Digital Age An interactive, live conversation between scholars and practitioners Join us, Tuesday July 14 (at 4 pm Budapest time, 3 pm GMT, 10 am EST) as we debate the issues at the digital crossroads of the transnational media environment. The interactive session…

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    Eastern Europe media development – no longer the flavour of the week

    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…

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    Freedom of the press annual rankings: are they worth reporting on?

    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…

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    CBC radio doc explores news in age of social media

    Documentary producer Ira Basen created a two-part series called News 2.0: The Future of News in an Age of Social Media on “where the news business is going, now that it’s everybody’s business.” Part one aired on the Sunday Edition, CBC Radio 1 on June 21 and the second part will air June 28 at…