10th Arab Media Forum 2011

Three Workshops To Headline First Day On 10th Edition Of Arab Media Forum

Opening Sessions to Discuss Media Content, Editorial Changes in Jordanian Media Landscape and On-Air Medical Advisory TV Programmes

Dubai-UAE: 4th April, 2011 - Dubai Press Club today announced three workshops will headline the first day of the Arab Media Forum 2011 in Dubai, highlighting media content, editorial changes on the Jordanian media landscape, and medical advisory TV programmes.

The workshops are titled ‘Media Content…More Personal…More Interactive’, ‘Jordanian Media…Birth pangs or Heartburn? and ‘On Air Medical Clinics: A race people would be losing their lives for!’ Organised under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the 10th edition of the Arab Media Forum will be held from 17 - 18 May at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai. Representatives and Editors-in-Chief of television, radio stations and newspapers, as well as columnists, researchers and students of different media majors from across the world and the Arab region are expected to attend the event.

Individual sessions at Arab Media Forum 2011 will shed light on the changes in the media landscape that have accompanied political, social and historical transformations in the Arab world, seeking to present an accurate and comprehensive reflection of their impact and the future of the industry as a whole.

The first workshop titled ‘Media Content…More Personal…More Interactive’ will discuss the substantial changes occurring in content creation on the issues that interest targeted audiences. In addition, the session will focus on the growth of companies that specifically support content development for the internet and social networking users, as well as platforms that engage digital forums such as the television.

This workshop will concurrently address the reflection of these transformations on huge media organisations that have started to plan programmes in line with the interest of the audience and aiming to capture the future of these changes. The workshop will address a group of questions about the reality of media, how traditional media deal with the changes, and the competition between different media outlets especially satellite TV channels.

Sahar Al Mizary from Dubai TV will be the moderator, while panelists will include journalist and blogger Faisal Abbas from Saudi Arabia, Georgio Angania, Executive Director of Media Initiatives in Zayed University, Dr. Sajed Al Abdali, a writer and commentator with AlJareeda AlKuwaitiyya, Wael Ateeli, a specialist in new media and electronic production, and Rawan AlDamen, director from Al Jazeera Television.

The session on ‘Jordanian Media…Birth Pangs or Heartburn?’ will have panelists focusing on the increase in the number of newspapers, TV and radio stations, and magazines that reflect the direction of the media towards playing a major role in shaping public opinion in Jordan. The workshop will additionally explore the future direction of the Jordanian media through analyzing its present realities on how the media has benefited from the past and identifying the main challenges from the perspective of those engaged in the industry. The session follows two successful discussions that focused on the Egyptian and the Kuwaiti media landscape in the previous editions of the Arab Media Forum.

To be moderated by Noura Al Kawasimi from the Jordanian TV, panelists for the workshop will include Ramadan Al Rawashda, General Manager of the Jordanian Press Agency (Petra), Samir AlHayari, Editor-in-Chief of Ammon website, Abdel Hadi Raji Al Majali, writer from Al Rai newspaper, and Fahed Al Kheetan, Editor-in-Chief for Al Arab Al Youm newspaper.

The third session titled ‘On Air Medical Clinics: A race people would be losing their lives for!’ will discuss the phenomenon of medical advisory programmes offered through media outlets especially television that feature a medical professional receiving patients’ telephone calls hardly lasting for a couple of minutes and offering prescription accordingly.

The workshop will analyse the spread and reach of on-air medical programmes across the world, the medical awareness it provides, and the reasons that lead doctors in some Arab countries to prosecute satellite TV channels which offer medical advisory threatening the health of the community. It will also address questions about the core essence of such services, the responsibility of media outlets presenting such content, as well as the criteria and parameters that need to be considered by the media prior to broadcasting such programmes.

To be moderated by Dr. Ali Sanjal, presenter of ‘Vitamin’ programme on Dubai TV, the panelists for the session will include Dr. Hamed Saleh, specialist in academic medical field, Ameen Al Amiri, Executive Director for Medical Practices and Licensing in the Ministry of Health, and Gina Vild, Head of Communication at the University of Harvard Medical School.

Further details on the workshops and speakers at the Arab Media Forum 2010 and the names of the media professionals leading such discussions will be announced shortly.

http://www.dpc.org.ae/default.aspx?options={c9e8b6e5-d3f0-4949-8318-5fce16476cd8}&view=News&layout=NewsBody&itemId=8&lang=1&id=2135

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews

Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

By Richard Goldstone, Friday, April 1, 8:42 PM

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza” while “the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”

Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

For example, the most serious attack the Goldstone Report focused on was the killing of some 29 members of the al-Simouni family in their home. The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack. While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly. The purpose of these investigations, as I have always said, is to ensure accountability for improper actions, not to second-guess, with the benefit of hindsight, commanders making difficult battlefield decisions.

While I welcome Israel’s investigations into allegations, I share the concerns reflected in the McGowan Davis report that few of Israel’s inquiries have been concluded and believe that the proceedings should have been held in a public forum. Although the Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.

Israel’s lack of cooperation with our investigation meant that we were not able to corroborate how many Gazans killed were civilians and how many were combatants. The Israeli military’s numbers have turned out to be similar to those recently furnished by Hamas (although Hamas may have reason to inflate the number of its combatants).

As I indicated from the very beginning, I would have welcomed Israel’s cooperation. The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel. I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within. Something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations. I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted.

Some have charged that the process we followed did not live up to judicial standards. To be clear: Our mission was in no way a judicial or even quasi-judicial proceeding. We did not investigate criminal conduct on the part of any individual in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. We made our recommendations based on the record before us, which unfortunately did not include any evidence provided by the Israeli government. Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing.

Some have suggested that it was absurd to expect Hamas, an organization that has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, to investigate what we said were serious war crimes. It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigations. At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.

In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.

I continue to believe in the cause of establishing and applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts. Our report has led to numerous “lessons learned” and policy changes, including the adoption of new Israel Defense Forces procedures for protecting civilians in cases of urban warfare and limiting the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. The Palestinian Authority established an independent inquiry into our allegations of human rights abuses — assassinations, torture and illegal detentions — perpetrated by Fatah in the West Bank, especially against members of Hamas. Most of those allegations were confirmed by this inquiry. Regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Simply put, the laws of armed conflict apply no less to non-state actors such as Hamas than they do to national armies. Ensuring that non-state actors respect these principles, and are investigated when they fail to do so, is one of the most significant challenges facing the law of armed conflict. Only if all parties to armed conflicts are held to these standards will we be able to protect civilians who, through no choice of their own, are caught up in war.

The writer, a retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, chaired the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

International Symposium of Online Journalism 2011

http://online.journalism.utexas.edu/papers.php?year=2011

2011 Research Papers

Below are the blind peer-reviewed research papers that were selected for presentation for the symposium event. Listed in alphabetic order. Papers will be available for download beginning April 1. Top Rated Research Paper will be announced at the event.

Open APIs and News Organizations: A Study of Open Innovation in Online Journalism 
by Tanja Aitamurto, visiting researcher at Stanford University, and Ph.D student at the University of Tampere, Finland and Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota
This paper examines how and why news organizations are deploying open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as part of their online strategy, connecting this phenomenon with the "open innovation" paradigm (Chesbrough, 2003) popular in the business management and technology literature. Up to now, the news industry has both under-funded R&D efforts and underappreciated the wisdom of external ideas. But this is beginning to change, as some major news organizations--including four studied here: the Guardian, The New York Times, USA Today, and National Public Radio--have deployed publicly available APIs, which can be seen as the first manifestation of open innovation in the news industry. Through qualitative interviews with key developers, we examine the nature of this phenomenon: the relative motivations, benefits, and challenges associated with using open APIs in the context of online news. Our findings offer a fresh perspective on the process of innovation, both for news organizations and the profession broadly.
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Knitting Together A Public: The Hyperlink, News Aggregation and the Cultures of Digital and Analog Evidence in Web-Era Journalism 
by C.W. Anderson, College of Staten Island (CUNY)
This paper examines the cultural and institutional dynamics of digital information through a qualitative analysis of work at several "human-powered" news aggregators. While public debate has highlighted the complex role of these aggregators in the operation of today's journalistic ecosystem, little research has been conducted on what these aggregators actually do. First and foremost, this paper aims to remedy this deficiency. In a broader sense, the paper serves as an empirical hinge between the authors' ongoing work on journalistic authority and current research on digital "news objects," in this instance, the hyperlink. If (as previous ethnographic research has argued) journalistic authority stems from the fusion of original reporting and the instantiation of the news consuming public, than the link-as an uncertain object of evidence, as a pointer to original information, as a tool that stitches the public together, as a doorway to diverse, often non-journalistic perspectives—is both important and problematic for journalism. 
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Opening the Gates: Interactive and Multi-Media Elements of Newspaper Websites in Latin America 
by Ingrid Bachmann and Summer Harlow, University of Texas at Austin
In light of newspapers' struggle to maintain readers and viability in the Digital Era, this study aims to better understand how newspapers in Latin America are responding to this shift toward user-generated and multi-media content. Using a content analysis of 20 newspapers from throughout Latin America, this study found that newspaper websites are bringing citizens into the virtual newsroom on a limited basis, allowing them to interact with each other and with the newspaper but only to a small degree. For example, while all newspaper websites have Facebook and Twitter accounts and some multimedia content, few allow readers to report errors, submit their own content, or even contact reporters directly. Further, most online newspaper articles include photos, but video, audio and hyperlinks rarely are used. These results further our understanding of how online interactivity is changing the traditional role of journalists and how Latin America is responding to the challenge.
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Friends Who Choose Your News 
by Brian Baresch, Dustin Harp, Lewis Knight, Carolyn Yaschur, University of Texas at Austin
The news watcher is no longer a captive audience, and news producers and sharers must compete for attention. Facebook's 500 million-plus active users share more than 30 billion pieces of content each month, including links to news stories, blog posts, and other content. This study examines the external links Facebook users post on their pages. Knowing what links are posted on Facebook indicates the other sites Facebook users are looking at and the type of content they deem important, which in turn illuminates the spread of news and memes at this end of the online news system. Researchers coded the extent, genre and character of shared links and responses. Frequent linkers on Facebook have distinctive genre, topic and source patterns particular to their interests. Findings could help better understand how news finds its way through online social networks via active surveillance and discussion leaders and their repurposing of content. 
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Intrigued, But Not Immersed: Millennial Students Analyze the iPad's Performance as a News Platform
by Jake Batsell, Southern Methodist University
The arrival of Apple's iPad tablet in 2010 was trumpeted as a pivotal, game-changing moment for the news business. But did the iPad's initial news applications live up to the much-hyped promise of delivering a more immersive news experience? The author, using two iPads obtained through a university pilot program, assigned 28 digital journalism students to rate and analyze iPad news apps during the fall 2010 semester. The iPads were rotated among the students, who examined their chosen news app over a period of at least four days and evaluated each app based on four factors: immediacy/urgency, non-linear news presentation, multimedia news content, and reader interactivity. The students were most impressed with multimedia news offerings (awarding an average of 3.7 points on a 5-point scale), but were less enamored with the apps' interactivity (3.3 points) and immediacy (3.1). While many students said they believe the iPad holds promise as a news platform, they generally preferred existing news websites and legacy news products to their iPad counterparts.
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Public Broadcasters Venture into Online Hyperlocal News: A Case Study of Newsworks.org 
by Mark Berkey-Gerard, Rowan University
In 2010, WHYY Inc., a NPR and PBS member station serving the Greater Philadelphia area, launched the interactive news website, Newsworks.org. The web portal provides regional news and information for the fourth largest media market in the United States. In addition, Newsworks.org features a distinct "hyperlocal news" gathering effort in 8 zip codes of Northwest Philadelphia, an area comprised of 190,000 residents and 15 distinct neighborhoods. Newsworks.org is a pilot program of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, designed to test "the possibilities of online hyperlocal journalism, driven by public media values and skills." This paper is an intrinsic qualitative case study of WHYY. It examines why decision makers at WHYY chose to embark on the Newsworks.org hyperlocal project, how the public media organization defines hyperlocal newsgathering, and how a public media organization practices hyperlocal journalism in the newsroom and in the field.
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Twitter First: Changing TV News 140 Characters at a Time 
by Dale Blasingame,Texas State University, San Marcos
The diffusion of Twitter has changed the gatekeeping process and flow of information in television news. Because of Twitter, the power of news delivery is now in the hands of many different newsroom employees who, in the past, were not employed in roles of storytellers. This study qualitatively examines how Twitter has altered the "gates" and the flow of information in television newsrooms in San Antonio, Texas, the country's 37th largest television market, and quantitatively analyzes how television stations and employees there are using Twitter. The data show Twitter is currently being used primarily for another function, not as a tool to deliver breaking news. 
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New Opportunities For Diversity: Twitter, Journalists and Traditionally Underserved Communities 
by Carrie Brown, University of Memphis, Elizabeth Hendrickson, University of Tennessee, Jeremy Littau, Lehigh University
This study explores the opportunities offered by Twitter for news organizations seeking to connect with communities often underrepresented as both sources and as audiences for news. A recent study by Pew Research Center found that minority Internet users are more than twice as likely as white Internet users to utilize Twitter, and that young Internet users are also significantly more likely than older Americans to adopt the still relatively-new social network. Through in-depth interviews and a survey, this study examines how young people and minorities are using Twitter and its potential to allow news organizations to reach and engage with younger and minority audiences. For many, it is not only a site used for entertainment and connection with like-minded others, but also for keeping up with news and giving them a voice on national or local issues they may not have previously perceived they possessed. 
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News on New Devices: Examining Multiplatform News Consumption in the Digital Age 
by Hsiang Iris Chyi and Monica Chadha, University of Texas at Austin
The average news consumer in the United States has never had as many choices for news consumption as now. Technological advances have allowed them to access the news on multiple devices such as computers, smartphones, e-readers, and/or tablets. This study empirically examined whether multiplatform news consumption is a reality and the extent to which people own, use, and perceive multiple electronic devices. Data was collected via a web-based survey from a random sample of the American adult population in August 2010. The results suggested that, despite the excitement about newer, more portable devices, the computer still is the dominant day-to-day electronic platform for news access, and most people use only one electronic device for news purposes on a weekly basis. We identified the predictors of device ownership and multiplatform news consumption. Managerial implications are discussed.
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Experiments in location-based content: A case study of Postmedia's use of Foursquare 
by Timothy Currie, University of King's College
In 2010, a number of North American news organizations began integrating editorial content with Foursquare, the mobile service that builds social communities around physical locations. Canada's Postmedia Network, the company that owns many big-city dailies in the country, including the National Post, was one of the most active adopters. This paper examines Postmedia's integration of its editorial content with the location-based service. It takes a case study approach, using in-depth interviews with staff at Postmedia news outlets to explore roles, tasks and strategies for pairing content with location. The results provide insight for other news organizations looking to tailor content for the growing audience of smartphone-equipped news consumers.
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See you on Facebook or Twitter? How 30 local news outlets manage social networking tools 
by Elvira Garcia de Torres (Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Spain) and others
The aim of the present study is to examine the use of social networking tools by 30 local news outlets from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela. It builds on research by Thurman and Hermida (2010), Vujnovic et al. (2010), Jerónimo and Duarte (2010), Garcia de Torres et al. (2010), Lewis et al. (2010) and Díaz Noci et al. (2010). We seek to explore if the dynamics involving the production of local news is affected by the use of such tools and how. Research questions are: (1) What kind of information delivers and gathers a local news outlet through social networking tools? (2) How much resources are consumed? (3) Which are the main opportunities and risks? (4) Are the patterns the same in all the markets examined? The method is a combination of observation of the news outlets profiles on Facebook and Twitter as well as semi-structured interviews with social media editors.
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Journalists in Network Society: Utilization of ICTs inside Three Egyptian Newsrooms 
by Ahmed El Gody, Orebro University, Sweden
The study focuses on the diffusion and implementation of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) especially Internet technologies (netCTs) in Egyptian newsrooms. Further the study examines if/and to what extent and in what ways did Egyptian newsrooms incorporated ICTs in their daily routine, and how did news organizations identify themselves with news convergence and whether the interactive characteristics of new media are playing a role in the Egyptian networked society. Other questions include what are ICTs components diffused and adopted in Egyptian print media? Presence of Convergence strategy(ies) within Egyptian newsrooms? What role, if any, do newsroom culture, and professional backgrounds play in adopting ICTs? form(s) of networking among journalists and their networking strategy –if any- with their sources, editors and audience? Further the role played by 'the networked journalism' if any in shaping society's democratic participation and creation of an active social network sphere. 
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Stopping the Presses: A Longitudinal Case Study of the Christian Science Monitor Transition From Print Daily to Web Always 
by Jonathan Groves, Drury University and Carrie Brown, University of Memphis
Though many news organizations have talked about going "Web-first" in response to sweeping economic and technological changes rocking the media landscape, the Christian Science Monitor took the mantra beyond platitudes. In 2009, the Monitor became the first nationally circulated newspaper to replace its daily print edition with its website and a weekly print magazine. This study utilizes three weeks of newsroom observation, interviews, and a survey to examine the paper's effort to grapple with this transition and the way it has altered news routines and values. Drawing upon theories of organizational culture and leadership, it offers insight for other organizations seeking to implement change. The study also documents a shift in the Monitor's news-gathering efforts and coverage as immediacy and page views rose as critical measures of success. 
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The Active Recipient: Participatory Journalism Through the Lens of the Dewey-Lippmann Debate 
by Alfred Hermida, UBC Grad. School of Journalism (Canada), David Domingo, Ari Heinonen, Steve Paulussen, Thorsten Quandt, Zvi Reich, Jane Singer, and Marina Vujnovic
While news outlets are providing significant opportunities for citizen contributions, research suggests that journalists have been reluctant to open up the news production process. This study draws on the work of Lippmann and Dewey to frame how journalists view participatory journalism. Definitions of participatory journalism tend to be based on a normative assumption of the active involvement of citizens in the news. Based on semi-structured interviews with professionals at 24 newspaper websites from 10 countries, as well as a consideration of the sites, we found that journalists have tended to adopt a Deweyan approach towards participatory mechanisms. The public is largely framed as a source for, and as a discussant of, the news, with little agency over how news is defined, reported or produced. We suggest that journalists view audiences as "active recipients", somewhere between passive receivers and active creators of content, straddling the space between Lippmann and Dewey.
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Is the Medium the Message? Predicting Popularity of Top U.S. News Sites with Medium-Specific Features 
by Angela Lee, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
Recent studies find that only a handful of news sites dominate the online news landscape, and some contribute such finding to the importance of news branding and credibility online. Nevertheless, existing findings fail to consider other possible explanations for this concentration of consumption beyond the fact that they are all counterparts of well-known, established traditional news sources. "Mediumizing" online news, and adopting an updated Uses & Gratifications approach, this study identifies five online news interface-specific features that predict popularity among the 2009 top ten U.S. news sites using maximum likelihood regression analysis in structural equation modeling. Results call attention to the need to move beyond an exclusive focus on content and consider attributes of online news as a distinct medium as a way to better understand the relationship between online news and its consumers. Suggestions for future studies on online news consumption are also discussed.
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The Knight News Challenge: How it works, what succeeds, and why that matters for the shaping of journalism innovation 
by Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota
In recent years, the Knight News Challenge has emerged as one of the most important forums for stimulating innovation in digital journalism, and as a salient marker of the Knight Foundation's influence in the field. Yet, the scholarly literature has yet to unpack this contest: its design and execution; the applicants it attracts and the winners it funds; and the normative aims about the future of journalism that may be revealed in this process. This paper addresses that by examining content analysis data for nearly 5,000 applications to the Knight News Challenge, exploring the distinguishing features of applicants, finalists, and winners-and how particular features are associated with one's proposal advancing in the contest. A logistic regression suggests that, among other factors, those applications that advanced to the finalist and winner stages tended to include forms of participation (e.g., "user manipulation" and "crowdsourcing") as well as other features (e.g., software development) not typically associated with journalism. These findings are placed in the context of the Knight Foundation's broader efforts to shape journalism innovation.
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Shoveling tweets: An analysis of the microblogging engagement of traditional news organizations 
by Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University,Maureen Linke, and Asriel Eford
This study analyzed the adoption and use of the microblogging platform Twitter by newspapers and television stations in the U.S. in 2009 and 2010. The results of a content analysis show that the use of social bookmarking tools on news organizations' websites and the adoption of Twitter have become important tools in the news distribution. However, the study also reveals that news organizations rarely use Twitter as a community-building tool and that shovelware still dominates the Twitter feeds. The use of the main Twitter channels has not developed beyond the utilization as a promotional tool.
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Educating the new generation journalist: from Moodle to Facebook 
by Carla Patrao and Antonio Dias Figueiredo, University of Coimbra, Portugal
The education of journalists is beginning to use social media tools extensively as a reflection of the fact that society now lives, not just with technology, but in technology. The action research project we describe in this paper, which is still in progress, tries to answer the question: how can we educate the new generation journalist by exploring innovative learning experiences based on social contexts mediated by technology? The analysis of the data collected so far reveals increased motivation and participation of the students in the learning experience, closer connection to the reality of the profession, and improvement of the students' personal skills in the area of journalism. The recent migration of the project to Facebook is now offering outside visibility and contact with journalism professionals from outside the academic world. 
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The Place For Creativity in Routine in The Online Newsroom 
by Nikki Usher, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication
This paper provides a counterpoint to the idea of routines as purely serving functionalist ends; and that these routines may even harm the potential creative and innovative capacity for news. Instead, this paper tries to look for the spaces and places where creativity emerges in newsrooms and specifically in newsrooms as they transition online. News production is of course a routine process, but it is in these routines - both online and in the routines that pre-dated the web - that spaces for creativity are possible. This paper maps out some of these places where creativity may be found in the newsroom, extending previous discussions of routine in the newsroom. The discussion is based on in-depth ethnographic work conducted across five newsrooms over the course of nearly a year and a half, but is intended specifically as a theoretical contribution. These newsrooms include Marketplace public radio, The New York Times, TheStreet.com, and The International Herald Tribune's Paris and Hong Kong newsrooms.

Love it or leave it? The relationship between polarization and credibility of traditional and partisan media 
by Kang Hui Baek, Larissa Williams, Maegan Stephens, Mark Coddington, Tom Johnson and Jennifer Brundidge, University of Texas at Austin
While studies have found links between credibility and selective exposure and between selective exposure and polarization, no study could be found that has examined whether credibility influences political polarization and conversely, whether political polarization influences credibility of various information sources. This study employs a secondary analysis of National Annenberg Election Survey data during two points in the 2008 presidential primaries to determine if believability of selected sources will lead to polarized political attitudes. More specifically this study will explore two questions: Does perceived believability of more balanced sources (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN and broadcast news) and/or more partisan ones (MSNBC and Fox News) lead to more polarized attitudes after controlling for demographic and political measures? Will polarized political attitudes increase or decrease believability perceptions of more balanced and more partisan news sources after controlling for demographic and political measures?
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Why should writers work for no pay?

Contributors to the Huffington Post have begun to chafe at the no-pay policy. They could take a lesson from stand-up comedians who faced a similar insult in the 1970s.

Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of Huffington Post Media Group. (Jessica Rinaldi /Reuters/March 12, 2011)

By Michael Walker

April 1, 2011

Should stage owners who profit from the talent appearing on those stages be obliged to pay the talent in something other than exposure?

Two labor disputes over talent and compensation, three decades apart yet eerily similar, suggest the issue remains as vexing as ever.

The more recent concerns whether the Huffington Post should pay its non-staff writers and bloggers, who supply most of the popular website's content for free. Arianna Huffington, who sold the site she cofounded to AOL in February for $315 million, has increasingly come under fire for not paying for most of the content she runs.

Last week the Newspaper Guild called on its 26,000 members to boycott the Huffington Post in support of a "virtual picket line" until a pay schedule for writers was established.

The core of Huffington's justification for not paying is that the Huffington Post is a showcase for writers, and that exposure there leads to paying gigs and greater visibility. Huffington merely — and generously, by her estimation — provides the stage. Mario Ruiz, the Huffington Post's spokesman, claims that contributors are happy to write for free because they "want to be heard by the largest possible audience and understand the value that that kind of visibility can bring."

This was precisely the argument put forth 32 years ago by Mitzi Shore, the owner of L.A.'s Comedy Store, for not paying the comedians whose performances filled her club night after night. At the time, according to William Knoedelseder's "I'm Dying Up Here," a history of the 1970s comedy scene, the Comedy Store was grossing as much as $20,000 a week but the comedians — including rising stars David Letterman, Jay Leno and Robin Williams — were paid nothing.

Like Huffington, Shore insisted that the Comedy Store was a showcase where comedians could get exposure that would lead to paying gigs elsewhere — talent agents and bookers for "The Tonight Show" were in regular attendance, she pointed out. The comedians were unmoved; without them, they argued, there would be no customers. But Shore was adamant. "The Comedy Store is a workshop," she said, "and in that environment the comics don't deserve to get paid."

So the comedians, led by Tom Dreesen, a regular on "The Tonight Show," formed Comedians for Compensation and picketed the club carrying signs like "I'm Funny for Money" and "No Bucks No Yucks." Leno and Letterman walked the picket line, Bob Hope bestowed his endorsement, and in the end the comics prevailed and Shore started paying. The strike ended the precedent — spreading to other clubs around the country — that nightclub owners should expect comedians to perform for free.

Like the Comedy Store comedians, contributors to the Huffington Post have begun to chafe at the no-pay policy. "It is unethical to expect trained and qualified professionals to contribute quality content for nothing," wrote Bill Lasarow, publisher of the Visual Arts Source website that first called for a "strike" by withholding its articles from the Huffington Post, which had been republishing them for free. Huffington responded much as Shore did in 1979: "Go ahead, go on strike," she said, adding that there was no shortage of replacement writers and that in any event, "no one really notices."

The comedians who struck the Comedy Store, some of whom were subsisting on pilfered saltines while playing to sold-out houses, demanded money for their work and got it — not only for themselves but, as Knoedelseder pointed out, also for the comics who followed during the 1980s when comedy clubs sprang up in nearly every city of consequence.

Whether the writers striking the Huffington Post have the kind of leverage the comedians had remains to be seen. Persuading thousands of individuals with divergent agendas, most of whom are unknown to one another, to boycott a popular platform out of a sense of solidarity is a formidable task. Complicating matters is that many of the unpaid contributors are not professional writers but "come from all walks of life," as Ruiz put it, and might be less inclined to sympathize.

The no-pay policy espoused by the Huffington Post is also the Web's fundamental underlying business philosophy — what the stand-up comedy business might have become had Letterman, Leno and the rest not thrown down the gauntlet. The reality is that the complicity of writers and entire publications in serving up endless freebies to the metaphorical Comedy Stores of the Web has gone a long way toward transmuting "writing" done for pay into into "content," consumed for free.

The Comedy Store strike proved that talent could set a price for its worth — so long as the idea of working without pay wasn't accepted by both sides as a plausible business model. As Dreesen, the comedian and leader of the strike, lamented in 1979: "We did this to ourselves — we agreed to work for free six years ago. Now we're trying to undo it."

Three decades later, writers for the Huffington Post are apparently coming to the same conclusion.

Michael Walker is the author of "Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood."

Courtesy: 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-walker-huffington-post-strike-20110401,0,1035765.story