Slow News: Chew Before Swallowing

Posted by Kate Nacy in Ethics & Quality, New Media & Web 2.0 on January 23, 2012

“Shut off the TV when you know more than the anchorman.”

Such a recommendation, almost comically obvious, invites the recipient to ponder a number of scenarios in which its application could be startlingly judicious. In his latest book Slow News: A Manifesto for the Critical News Consumer (published in Italian by Sironi in Milano, with an American version to follow in 2012), Peter Laufer’s tokens of wisdom for the contemporary news consumer follow suit: they are rational, easy to abide and equally easy to overlook while managing a shrill world of tweets, feeds and perpetually breaking updates. Laufer, an award-winning journalist toting a rich and diverse career in broadcast, documentary filmmaking, reporting and academia, offers readers a sensible set of guidelines for managing an ever-expanding info blitzkrieg. “We’re in danger of missing the story because of the noise,” he warns.

Convinced we must learn new ways to interpret a hyperactive news media, Laufer stresses his own motto: “Yesterday’s news tomorrow.” Unless you happen to be at the center of a particular news story yourself, just how imperative is it to gather straightdowntotheminute details chronicling an event occurring far Read the rest of this entry »

Fortune Tellers and Psychics Pervade Italian Media

Posted by Mariella Radaelli in Ethics & Quality on January 21, 2012

*Article courtesy of European Journalism Centre

Anyone sitting in front of the television in Italy for half an hour, especially in the evening, would soon believe we’re all in dire need of a clairvoyant.

This is because astrologers, fortune-tellers, and all sorts of psychics claiming to be blessed with supernatural powers are thriving on a variety of small and private channels.

A woman who fell victim to the famous television healer Vanna Marchi testified: “I told her my son had cancer. She gave me a private consultation for a big sum of money. She said that the case was severe and that in order to ease the progress of my son’s illness, she needed quadruple the amount. If I did not pay, my son’s fate would be tragic. I told her firmly that I wouldn’t give her any more money. She replied that I didn’t love my son”. Marchi was later arrested and her television programme was cancelled.

According to the institute of political, economic and social studies Eurispes, 13 millions of Italians consult fortune-tellers every year for a total business volume of EUR 6 billion. This means that 35,000 women and men pay a total of EUR 1,6 million a day for the services of a medium.

Data compiled by the Italian tax police Guardia di Finanza indicates that 150,000 psychics are practising in the Italian Peninsula. Read the rest of this entry »

After the Death of Print, No Paradise Awaits

Posted by Stephan Russ-Mohl in Ethics & Quality, Newsroom Management on January 15, 2012

aepocIf newspapers are no longer printed, the journalistic profession will change dramatically, and not necessarily for the better.

While several media conglomerates in the German-speaking world, among them Ringier and Springer, have prepared their online futures by merging independent newsrooms, in the U.S. several newspapers halted print publications entirely, offering online editions only. The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin, has surfaced among the handful of pioneers tackling such an approach.

At this point, the Capital Times may be the first newspaper in history with an intensely researched transformation from print to online. “Journalism as Process” – the title of a study (published in Journalism Monographs, Vol. 13, No.3, 2011) by Sue Robinson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, demonstrates how traditional boundaries and professional roles have vanished in the newsrooms of online newspapers, and how news is no longer presented as a “finite product, ” but rather created and updated Read the rest of this entry »

Small Market, Many Problems

Posted by Milica Jevtic and Marko Nedeljkovic in Ethics & Quality, Media Policy on January 12, 2012

Although Serbia is home to only seven million citizens, it has no less than 610 print media outlets and 456 electronic media platforms.

Lack of transparent ownership, lack of freedom and an inadequate withdrawal of the state from various media outlets are only a few of the numerous problems acknowledged by media professionals. The Serbian press remains in an intensely difficult situation, yet the introduction of new technologies is increasingly viewed as a possible remedy.

THE MARKET

The press: One of the largest problems facing the domestic press is immense competition: according to data provided by the Serbian Business Registers Agency, there are no less than 610 print media outlets in the market, including 20 daily newspapers and 83 weekly magazines. Most of them are available nation-wide. In 2009, advertisers invested €36 million in print media outlets, according to data from the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS). On average, this amounts to €72,000 euro per each registered print Read the rest of this entry »

Minority Voices on Social Media Networks

Posted by Larisa Rankovic in New Media & Web 2.0 on January 8, 2012

*Article courtesy of the European Journalism Centre

While an increasing number of studies analyse the role of social media as platforms for contact, cooperation and socialisation, little research has been done on their implications for the specific case of minority groups.

The European Centre for Minority Issues, a research and policy institution based in the town of Flensburg on the German-Danish border, recently welcomed a group of European researchers and web analysts on minority issues from Hungary, Russia, Poland, Romania, Germany, Denmark, Belgium and Serbia to discuss the use of social media networks by ethnic, linguistic, immigrant and sexual minorities.

The workshop entitled Minorities and New Social Media showed that along with the great variety of types of minorities in Europe, there is an even greater variety in the ways these communities are present on the Internet in general and on social media platforms in particular.

Ethnic and language minorities

An ethnic minority living in a given region of Europe may use new media platforms in order to strengthen its identity awareness, language, cultural production and historic heritage. The Kashubian minority living in the area around the Polish town Read the rest of this entry »

Media as an Extension of Politics

Posted by Remzi Lani in Ethics & Quality, Spin & Public Relations on January 1, 2012

Throughout the post-communist transition period, the relationship between media and politics has been intensely complex and rife with contradiction.

Today’s Balkan press functions more as an extension of politics than a representation of public opinion, and a sizeable portion of the media continues to be controlled by powerful political groups. Observations shared by a number of authors (such as Karol Jakubovicz, Mihai Coman, Colin Sparks and Tomasz Goban-Klas) characterizing the media situation in post-communist societies also apply to the Balkan region: The press became pluralistic, but not independent. Free, but still not independent.

The shift from the “Soviet Media Model” to the “Social Responsibility Model” seems to have been more difficult than anticipated. Habits inherited from the time of communism have politicians and political parties constantly trying to influence the media, as the conviction remains strong that whoever controls the information holds the power. The political classes, which as a rule are obsessed with maintaining power, “consider the media Read the rest of this entry »

A New Debate on Media Freedom

Posted by Henri Cili in Press Freedom on December 28, 2011

Debates about press freedom have raged often in Albania’s 20 years of democracy.

Now, as the country enters its third decade of democracy, the debate must be waged in a new context.  Journalist Sokol Balla’s new book entitled Freedom of Expression – A European Challenge serves as an introduction to the new course of press freedom in Albania.

In his book, Balla provides several guidelines to consider as press freedom evolves in Albania. He emphasizes the fact that Albanians don’t have the same issues they had 10 or 15 years ago, when the independent press was in its infancy. While Balla doesn’t suggest there is a thriving “media industry” in Albania per se, today’s system of media is highly complex.

At the heart of media freedom in Albania there stands the economic problem from which all the other issues are derived. The first and perhaps most significant problem can be found in financing. Today’s media system is constructed as an industry, and while the system is essentially a business, it operates without the fear of bankruptcy. Read the rest of this entry »