Jornalismo
Lista onde se agregam conteúdos de blogues que abordam o tema do jornalismo e àreas adjacente quando é caso disso. A lista pode sofrer alterações em qualquer altura, sendo a selecção dos blogues incluídos feita pelo editor deste blogue.
News from Journalism.co.uk » Press Gazette: Freelancers must register or face fine, warns ICO
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has urged freelance journalists to register as 'data controllers', because the personal information the handling as part of their work is covered by the Data Protection Act. Freelancers who do not register with the ICO could face a substantial fine. 
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Information Clearing House publisher receives threats
The publisher of a US website that aims to ‘correct the distorted perceptions provided by commercial media’ has been threatened with violence, according to reports from a friend and fellow independent publisher.
Tom Feeley, who runs Information Clearing House, and his family have received a string of threats relating to his work online, Mike Whitney reports.
Most recently Feeley’s wife was threatened in her home by three men with a gun, who demanded he stopped his online publishing. Feeley himself has also received death threats, according to Whitney.
At the time of writing the website is still active.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Australian National Library opens newspaper archive
Australia’s National Library has launched an archive of images and articles from Australian newspapers between 1803 and 1954.
The beta site currently features scanned pictures and text from 11 titles.
Content is easily navigable thanks to a panning tool and zoom controls, and can be searched by date, title, state or article keyword.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Sheffield Star axes five senior journalists
Johnston Press is cutting five senior journalists at the Sheffield Star as part of a series of redundancies at the title, an announcement from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said.
Picture editor Dennis Lound, business editor John Highfield, senior production manager Richard Smith, Barnsley reporter Gail Robinson and Rotherham reporter Ray Parkin are being made redundant.
An unspecified number of voluntary redundancies is also being sought amongst production staff and the paper’s offices in Rotherham and Barnsley will be closed.
The paper has entered a two-week consultation period with the affected journalists, who were told of their fate on Tuesday.
At a meeting last night staff at Sheffield Newspapers, which also publishes the Sheffield Telegraph, Weekly Gazette and Journal, passed a vote of no confidence in editor Alan Powell.
Staff will fight the cuts, the NUJ said, and are calling for a ballot on industrial action.
“Feelings are running high and people are angry. We feel The Star is paying the price for Johnston Press’s greedy spending spree over the last few years and bad decisions taken by JP’s senior management,” said Julia Armstrong, mother of Sheffield Newspapers’ NUJ chapel.
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AndyDickinson.net » The virtuous circle of journalism process
Say a quite word of thanks dear reader to Mr Kevin Anderson. Why? Let me explain.
Yesterday I posted a graphic that tried to sum up some of the problems that still exist as we try and engage with community.
I’d been thinking about it because I’ve been updating content for my Digital newsroom model next semester. One of the things I found was that it was tricky to get the students to buy in to benefit of sharing. They got the power of the web to gather content but I guess you could say that they where still in that gatekeeper mentality. Sharing photos on Flickr or using twitter was too geeky for them. It didn’t fit the journalistic process.
A phrase that popped in to my head, and I used a lot, was the ‘virtuous circle’. You give and people will give.
This strikes me more and more as a defining element of a journalist who understands how to work online. You only need to look at the debate around plagiarism and the link economy in journalism to see that.
Anyway, I promised a ramble post or two may follow. So in an effort to head one of those off here is a little video I made to try and explain my thinking. I’d love some feedback:
The virtuous circle from Digitaldickinson on Vimeo.
This isn’t original thought by any stretch of the imagination. The virtuous circle is not a new concept and if anyone else is talking in the same tones then I’d love to know. I’m also not trying to make a new ‘model’ here. I based many of my lectures on Paul Bradshaw’s news diamond and the discussion that generated. All credit to him. The way that model was developed through his blog and the discussion it generated in my lectures is a fine example of that virtuous circle in action.
Yeah, yeah, Video shimdeo. What about Kevin Anderson you ask.
Well, Kevin picked up on my illustration and commented on how a different attitude can reap rewards. Thanks to his concise example you have a hell of a lot less ramble to sit through.
A few years ago, colleagues asked me why bloggers responded to my interview requests when they had trouble getting a response. The problem was, they were often sending out form e-mail interview requests and treating bloggers, usually ordinary people, as if they were members of government or industry spokespeople. I usually started my search for a blogger through a blog search engine like Technorati. When I found a relevant post, I would quote the post and ask them if they wanted to join a discussion about the topic they had blogged about.
I also use Creative Commons licenced pictures in Guardian blog posts (Attribution licence that allows for commercial use). Unless, I’m really pressed for time, I send the Flickr user a short note and a link. They always thank me for being a good member of the community, and the sometimes even blog about the post. I’ve acted in good faith, and they have reciprocated by flagging up their photo on a Guardian post. We can be good members of both virtual and real world communities, and I think it’s one of the things that can rebuild journalists’ relationship with the people formerly known as the audience. Becoming better citizen journalists might just save professional journalism.
Thanks Kevin.
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News Videographer » Collection of video compression instruction
After laying my heart out regarding how I export and compress my videos from the web, I got some good comments from people who do it a bit differently.
For example, Anthony Mirones, just switches the “mov” extension to “flv” and uploads his videos to the web. I’ll have to experiment with that one, but in the meantime, here’s some more info on compression.
Make sure you check out the Flash bitrate calculator that the post below links to. I am floored!
FreshDV.com published a table of the best frame sizes to use when converting to FLV (Link via Andy Dickinson). It brings up an issue I’ve never heard of before:
… to get optimal results from a codec it is best to choose a frame size that divisible by at least 4 or 8. This is because codecs often use use 4×4, 8×8 and sometimes 16×16 “blocks” to form an image. If your image dimensions are evenly divisible, no extra blocks are wasted and the codec can be most efficient with respect to image quality.
Last but not least, XLNTads published some compression links and also shared his favored settings.
This is a post from News Videographer.
Collection of video compression instruction
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News Videographer » Fantastic visual story with useful voiceover
I found this great video on CTNZ.TV about Children Village, an orphanage in China whose parents were executed, or are serving jail time, for murder.
It has a very varied visual story, and the voiceover really adds to the piece because it’s providing such interesting and comprehensive information.
The videographer did such a great job!
This is a post from News Videographer.
Fantastic visual story with useful voiceover
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Journalism in Africa: Kenya’s plans for industrial growth could boost media
Kenya’s plans for industrialization by the year 2030 will have a major impact on the country’s media, writes Dennis Itumbi for Journalism.co.uk.
Intervention in economic policies, the tourism sector, improvement of roads, commercialization of farming and affordable credit to farmers are among a raft of radical measures proposed in the VISION 2030 document, whose overall goal is to ‘turn Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous Kenya’.
The most notable changes are the proposed end to the currently retrogressive Official Secrets Act, which makes it illegal for local journalists to access government documents, and the introduction of a Freedom of Information Act.
The laws are contained in a voluminous document that also proposes to place Kenya in the league of fast growing economies alongside Malasyia and Thailand within the next 22 years.
Other changes being proposed in the development blueprint include a review of the country’s Media Act, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation Act and the law governing media regulator the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK).
Hannington Gaya, chairman of the Local Media Owners Association, has welcomed the move.
“One can only hope that this new document does not end up on a shelf like all others before it, since it has good intentions, and for the first time the role of the media in development is recognized,” he said.
“The Freedom of Information [Act] in particular is a welcome move,” said Gaya in a phone interview.
The changes to the Media Act could make it mandatory for both local and foreign journalists to undergo specialized training before being accredited to cover general elections – part of efforts to restore a balance to the country’s media after last year’s disputed presidential election resulted in countrywide violence.
Further changes to the CCK will introduce news ways of monitoring and regulating language on vernacular radio stations, which were blamed for fanning the violence.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk - keeping on top of tax
Freelance: Check out tax advice from HMRC. It will help you with VAT issues. Also read Journalism.co.uk's ‘how to' on tax. Tipster: Laura Oliver To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link - we will pay a fiver for the best ones published. 
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ContraFactos & Argumentos » Warcarting
“Warcarting: when wardriving, warwalking, warflying, warrocketing, warballooning, warbiking, and warboating are just not good enough."
“You’ve been wardriving, but have you ever gone warcarting?"
“Warcarting: because wardriving is so 2000, and warflying is so 2002."
“Warcarting: the hobo's approach to wireless communications interception."
“Warcarting: wardriving on a budget" [Link]
AndyDickinson.net » How the UK Tabloids use video: The Mail
It’s Friday so it must be the last day of my review of the way the UK tabloids use video and I’m rounding things off with the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail sits alongside the Daily Express in the tabloid ‘mid-market’ apparently setting it an order above the Red top Sun, Star and Mirror. It’s actually one of the more successful online newspaper websites considering how late in the game they where in setting one up. The Mail have made a particular point of targeting women web users which you can see from the tone and structure of the site.
The platform
The Daily Mail's video player. Hard to find but nice information when you do
When it comes to video there was no obvious sign of video on the front page of the site either through the navigation or flagged stories. A search on the website (please get rid of that offer of an embedded search tool or add No) revealed two articles in a video category. Clicking through took me to the Daily Mail’s video section. Fully formed, large as life but not linked.
Its the standard jukebox player but, unlike the rest of the tabloids who use Roo, this is a Brightcove player. The player isn’t the only thing that’s different. The page layout is more in keeping with the article page layout on the site rather than the ‘TV’ box style on others. Sections are presented in one long thing sidebar. It’s a layout that, like some of the other pages, hides too much content below the scroll. I think filling boxes with reams of links is a habit the Mail need to get out of.
One nice thing to see was the content box below the video window. There is the usual headline, short description but there is also a byline. A nice, human touch. Better still is some useful meta. A date, time and most impressively a source for the video is given. It is often missing which makes me think Brightcove are supplying the information for some of this data. I think the presentation could be better (bigger) but it’s good to see.
But it’s a step in the right direction. I didn’t see any of the other papers crediting the Bournemouth News & Picture Service for the Mini Hendrix footage. In fact, most of the agency footage is credited which slowed me down for a half-hour or so as I looked at what other stuff they had. I suppose that’s the lot of a news agency but it was nice to see.
If it's a screen grab why not just embed the video?
Most encouraging though was the presence of links back to articles. At last! When you do follow the links through the video is usually embedded towards the end of the video. I think this is shame as it often duplicates pictures on the page. A story about violent yobs (good Mail fair) features a heavy number of screen-grabs from CCTV video that is embedded further down the page. One of the pictures at the head of an article is a screen grab. It is exactly the same as the poster frame of the video. Why show both?
The presentation
Unknown source or the BBC? You decide
The thing that really struck me about the video on the Mail is the lack of news feed content. There is no dedicated news feed of PA or Reuters content. In fact there is nothing approaching a news feed at all on the site. All of the content can best be described as illustrative or feature based. Like the other tabloids it’s rounded up entertaining clips from the web that it thinks will appeal to the audience and the editorial line is firmly in the middle of the paper not the news pages at the front. So we get news it’s a mix of besieged middle-Englanders battling yob culture or birds that sound like ambulances and Herons learning to fly.
The only exception to that when I looked was a video of teenage Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr. It’s illustrative video, it supports the news story. But I single it out as it’s clearly BBC footage grabbed from TV - I’m pretty sure that’s Frank Gardner voicing it- but it isn’t credited. Having seen the Mirror pull this trick I wonder what the form is here.
There is some homegrown content on the site. Mark Lawford’s interview with Monte Panesar was interesting but the lighting was poor and the shot could have been tighter. Listen to the interview though as a good example of a print person doing a video interview. That isn’t a criticism. Listen the way he qualifies statements, jumping in, looking for stuff that can be used as reported speech later on. It’s a questioning style that gives you print stuff but it won’t stack up for long in video.
Drop one presenter and half the time
The other, consolidated, bit of video content was the Live magazine tech-review video. James Mannion and Rob Waugh do a double-header reviewing the latest gadgets. Its shot in what seems to be a photographic studio using two cameras - or some pretty meticulous single camera set up. The idea is okay but the production and format don’t work for me. The editing is too tricksy and slows the pace. The presentation is also too stilted. They have a bit of a star in Rob Waugh and my view is that they should let him do the slot without James (no offense James). That way it could be half the length and have a lot more pace.
Overall.
I get the impression that video is fairly new to the Mail. It feels cautious and the fact that the video section is so hidden away just emphasises that. But that could be a smart move on the part of the Daily Mail.
They are not selling the site as having video and then backing that claim up with feed video. This is more a site that has the capacity to use video and the video section is just a bonus. I’m not sure I would go as far as to say that they use video well; there isn’t enough of it to tell. But where it is used it seems appropriate. It could be used better on the article page and I don’t see a clear editorial line. But it’s there.
How they move forward from here will be interesting to see. My money would be on a movement more towards The Sun where the video is a mix of stuff that may appeal to the audience rather than a more broadsheet style of authored pieces. I think they may end up doing it very well.
So that’s it. A week of tabloid newspaper video. So what did I learn from looking at The Sun, Star , Mirror Express and Mail? Find out on Monday.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Guardian bought Madeleine McCann link by mistake, says marketing director
Paper wrongly bought the phrase Madeleine McCann as part of a list of Google keywords to promote their website 
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AndyDickinson.net » Olympic censorship comment on twitter
Loved this twitter from Alex Gamela
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PDA » Blinkx bids for ad net MIVA, aiming for wider distribution
By Robert Andrews Video search index Blinkx wants to buy pay-per-click ad network MIVA, formerly FindWhat. The London- and San Francisco-based firm has offered $1.20 per share, a 54 percent premium on yesterday's $0.78 close and funded by cash… [Link]
ContraFactos & Argumentos » Anti-censura
Global Internet Freedom Consortium partners have developed many anti-jamming (anti-censorship) products. Among them, the following five anti-censorship client software packages are most popular:
* UltraSurf
* FreeGate
* GTunnel
* FirePhoenix
* GPass
Download the up-to-date GIFC Anti-Censorship Tools Bundle which includes above popular client software packages. [Link]
Online Journalism Blog » What are your most useful online tools? (Something for the Weekend #12)
I’ve looked at a number of tools in this series, often very new with potential applications for journalism that haven’t been realised. This time I want to turn the spotlight onto tools that you’re using every day, which may not be flashy, but which do a simple job very well - for example:
- in managing or filtering information,
- identifying leads, ideas and contacts,
- producing news itself,
- distributing it,
- or allowing users to get involved.
What have been the most useful online tools you’ve used?
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PDA » Guardian Viral Video Chart
What happens when you cross "hot" Paris Hilton running for president with trees and leaves getting their freak on for Greenpeace and a bit of a spoof of Heath Ledger and Christian Bale? You get this week's Viral Video chart,… [Link]
ContraFactos & Argumentos » O que se passa n'O Primeiro de Janeiro em Agosto
News from Journalism.co.uk » Journalism in Africa: Kenyan government relaxes communication laws
Dennis Itumbi reports for Journalism.co.uk from Nairobi on the media in Kenya:
The Kenyan Government has bowed to pressure from media owners and dropped plans to outlaw cross-media ownership and endorse the invasion of broadcasting stations.
New laws tabled in parliament by Samuel Poghisio, Kenya’s Information and Communications Minister, suggest the controversial clauses have been removed from the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2008.
The removed clauses made it illegal to own a broadcast station and newspaper at the same time.
However, the new bill has emphasises the growth of local programming at local stations. ‘The Kenyan identity has to be maintained throughout the programming and enhanced quantity of such programmes should be aired,’ it states.
At one time former minister Raphael Tuju, who now chairs the Ethnic and Race Relations committee in the Office of the President, demanded that local stations output was at least 40 per cent local content - no station complied. However, stations have recently been increasing local production across the country.
The new bill strips the Minister for Internal Security of proposed powers to invade ‘rogue stations’ and seeks to elevate the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) into a fully fledged information and communications regulator. If passed, the bill would empower the CCK to license and regulate broadcasting services.
The new proposals sailed through the first reading in parliament on Monday.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Columbia Journalism Review: Egyptian bloggers are hungry for a ‘new’ media
“I want to learn how to be credible. I want people to believe me. I want to know how you journalists work. I want to report news. Facts. No ideology.” 
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AndyDickinson.net » Community, audience and Journalism
I’ve been thinking about how journalists, community and audience interact and the problems that cuases. I do think that the media see audience and communities differently - that’s one of the problems.
Some rambly posts may follow.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Online journalism projects named as finalists for Knight-Batten Awards
A Kenyan website relaying information in the post-election violence is one of the four projects nominated for the innovation awards 
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News from Journalism.co.uk » American University's J-Lab awarded $2.4m grant
Funding from the John S. and James L. Knight foundation will expand the project 
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ContraFactos & Argumentos » Cores com qualquer caneta
Andrea Joseph's sketchblog [Link]
AndyDickinson.net » MSNBC.com and embeddable video
MSNBC.com President and Publisher Charlie Tillinghast talked to Beet.TV last month about the new msnbc.com player and it’s embedding capabilities.
I hadn’t seen this before I wrote my tips for newspaper video but it compliments nicely. The take-away message for me is that embedding and allowing others to take your content away and embed offers more control.
Thanks to Angela over at Newsvideographer for the heads-up
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ContraFactos & Argumentos » Mapa da conversação online
Introducing The Conversation Prism [Link]
PDA » Downing Street prepping new video website
By Robert Andrews 10 Downing Street is launching a new video site, Number10TV, in a new effort to help Gordon Brown engage with the public. The prime minister's office has engaged video player maker Brightcove to use its video… [Link]
News from Journalism.co.uk » MySpace and NBC select citizen journalism competition winners
Decision08, a competition organised by MySpace, NBC News and msnbc.com, has selected two citizen journalists to cover the 2008 US Democratic and Republican conventions.
Matt Britten and Sara Pat Badgley were chosen by more than 50,000 users who voted in the Decision08 convention contest, a press release said.
Entrants were asked to post a video to the Decision08 MySpace site answering the question ‘How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?’
Below are the winning vids:
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Imagine Publishing launches user-focused gaming site
Imagine Publishing has launched a website for fans of its Retro Gamer magazine.
Retrogamer.net lets users upload their own game reviews and ratings, with a pick of the contributions selected to appear in the magazine’s print edition.
A forum, team blog and a game buying guide are also features of the new site.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Former Reuters sports editor Steve Parry dies
Steve Parry, former Reuters sports editor, has died today aged 64, Reuters has reported.
Parry, who worked for the media group for 34 years, was sports editor from 1982 until his retirement in 2000.
He had been suffering from a respiratory illness and died in hospital.
Parry joined Reuters’ London sports desk in 1966 and was appointed sports news editor in 1977.
After leaving the group, he became a consultant for the International Olympic Committee.
His death comes on the eve of the Beijing Olympics – an event Parry had covered on the previous 10 occasions, attending his first Summer Games in Mexico City in 1968.
“We at Reuters are devastated by the news. Steve was one of the finest journalists Reuters ever had and one of the greatest men I ever knew,” said Paul Radford, Reuters current sports editor and Parry’s former deputy.
“He was one of the most revered and respected personalities in the world of sports journalism and a monumental figure in the Olympic movement.”
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Stephen Quinn on mobile journalism
“You need to have the fundamentals in place before you start playing with new technology. The skills are the same as for traditional media plus an awareness of what’s possible, and a willingess to play with the tools, a willingness to accept that journalism may move beyond what we currently know,” Stephen Quinn, academic and author of Knowledge Management in the Digital Newsroom, told Paul Bradshaw from the Online Journalism Blog in this interview.
Quinn discusses mobile journalism and how the mainstream media are getting involved:
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News from Journalism.co.uk » LA Times breaks web traffic record with 127m page views
The LA Times recorded 127 million page views last month – breaking its previous record of 120 million.
The site attracted 19 million unique users in July, a memo from the paper’s Meredith Artley, executive editor for interactive, said.
While the recent Californian earthquake was a contributing factor to the traffic surge, new SEO techniques and growing popularity on social bookmarking sites have had a significant impact, Artley said.
Blog traffic also grew last month rising to 12 million page views. The most popular blog, in terms of traffic, was Top of the Ticket, which recorded 1,800,770 views, according to the paper’s figures.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » News of the World launches website redesign in beta
The News of the World has launched a beta version of its website redesign.
The version is being used to test the new look, which introduces a slightly wider page size, an overhead navigation bar and a reduced left-hand navigation menu.
The redesign brings NOTW.co.uk more in line with the recently revamped Sun website.
The ‘below the fold’ section of the homepage is significantly tidier with less content, stronger section headings and clearer dividing lines between them.
A section devoted to six of the best stories from the NOTW’s archive also makes its debut on the right-hand side of the homepage – a feature that used in varying ways across the site’s sections.
Usurping the current ’sell your story for cash’ ad, is the site’s enhanced video player, which no longer launches in a separate window.
The video player looks striking with its black background and cleaner with a reduced number of content tabs. A built-in video search tool is a welcome addition. Video isn’t yet embedded into the site’s article pages.
There’s more depth to the new design: news, sport and other sections have their own pages and a presence away from the homepage.
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Freelancer of the fortnight: Chris Gelken, China
Journalism.co.uk catches up with a member of its freelance community. Chris Gelken specialises in regional and international affairs and is currently based in Beijing 
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Online Journalism Blog » Which mobile internet services do Flemish newspapers offer?
Dorien Aerts takes a look at Flemish newspapers’ mobile efforts.
What kind of mobile internet services do newspapers in Flanders offer? Since the launch of the iPhone in Belgium a few weeks ago, the mobile internet has become a hot topic. It has ‘a face’ since then, and more and more people want to try it out. Here’s what’s being done…
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De Standaard (publisher: Corelio)
One of Belgium’s quality papers, De Standaard has offered a mobile website to its readers since the 16th of June via m.standaard.be.
The service contains all kinds of news, from sports and politics to celebrity updates. Apart from that, the mobile website offers the weather forecast and up to date traffic information.
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De Tijd (publisher: De Persgroep)
De Tijd focuses on financial news. It delivers daily news, currencies and the reader’s personal ‘investment wallet’ via the mobile internet.
Subscribers to the newspaper get a little extra: they have access to the archive (beginning 1998) and can search it, just like they can on the regular website.
De Tijd also offers its mobile service via a website. Readers type tijd.be and the website automatically adapts to the screen of the cellphone.
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Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen (publisher: Concentra)
Locally oriented newspapers Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen offer a mobile website as well. Via www.hbvl.be/palmnieuws/, Belgian, sports, society, cultural and international news is provided. At 2 and 5 pm the news is updated.
Not a surprise
Other newspapers in Flanders like Het Laatste Niews, De Morgen and Het Nieuwsblad, aren’t offering a mobile internet service (yet).
It is not a surprise however that the other four newspapers examined here are ahead of the game.
De Standaard has always been ahead in the Belgian news market when it comes to innovation. The newspaper was the first to introduce blogs on its website and work with bloggers.
Moreover, they offer a very user-friendly website combining text, pictures and video. Editor in chief Peter Vandermeersch says: “We are a news label. On paper and on the computer. Now we are also on your mobile phone.”
Financial newspaper De Tijd has a highly educated readership, interested in financial news and familiar with mobile technology. A small step, in other words, to introduce their customers to mobile services.
As for the local newspapers Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen: publisher Concentra has always been known as an innovative company, introducing their mobile internet website years ago. In a Dutch article on frankwatching earlier this week it was pointed out that the local media are often the most innovative.
Added value
The mobile websites of De Standaard and De Tijd offer more than news. De Standaard’s up to date traffic information may not really be relevant when behind your computer, yet it becomes very interesting when you are on the road with your cellphone.
De Tijd offering personal investments wallets via the mobile internet means quite an added value as well. It saves readers time (they can check it everywhere) and they are always up to date about their investments.
No newspaper has chosen the mobile widget path yet, and localisation or personalisation services also haven’t been introduced.
Do newspapers in other countries offer similar mobile services? Are they ahead of Flemish newspapers?
Person Peter Vandermeersch Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts [Link]
News Videographer » Online News Association video award nominations
Check out the nominations for the Online News Association awards for the online video category.
This is a post from News Videographer.
Online News Association video award nominations
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ContraFactos & Argumentos » Artes urbanas
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk - building a better blog
Blogging: Read ProBlogger’s 31-day plan on how to build a better blog. Other bloggers have added their advice alongside the step-by-step basics. Tipster: Laura Oliver To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link - we will pay a fiver for the best ones published. 
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News from Journalism.co.uk » Headliners for Beyond the Printed Word 2008 conference announced
Ifra conference will look at cashing in on digital services 
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AndyDickinson.net » How the UK Tabloids use video: The Express
This week I’m looking at the way the UK tabloids use video and today it’s the turn of the self proclaimed best newspaper in the World, the Daily Express
The Express takes us out of the ‘red-top’ territory of The Sun, Star and Mirror and in to the tabloid ‘mid-market’ which it shares with its rival The Daily Mail, which I’ll be looking at tomorrow.
The Platform
The Express front page has a number of video links
The Express flags it’s video clearly on the front page with a navigation item for video, currently marked as new, and a little graphic on the right-hand side of the page. A click on either one will take you through to the video page and (once you have cleared the really annoying overlay ad) the standard jukebox player powered by Roo.
The Express player. Dull, glitchy and full of third party stuff
When it first loads up, I have to say it looks pretty dull. The categories are all presented as ‘accordion’ style navigation but they are all rolled up. So you are presented with a generic splash screen on the player and no nice thumbnails to entice you in. It’s almost as if you click through and discover that Express video is closed for the summer. But I’m not afraid to click around and it’s a good job too.
Clicking news presents you with another set of roll-ups, again shut tight, and more menus. This is just too many clicks. But when I did eventually get some thumbnail action - I clicked UK news - I was greeted by the familiar swish of the Press Association and then it froze. Something that happened quite a few times on the site. The controls failed to work for me using Firefox and a mac when it first loaded. All the way through the player skipped, stuttered and jumped videos. A bit of clicking around got it working but it was frustrating.
There is no back linking to articles from the video and they don’t do embedded video. If you want to cook along with Gary Rhodes for example, then you better make a note of the ingredients first because clicking the link will take you away from the recipe page.
The Presentation
The news content on the site is a mix of Press Association, AFP and Reuters. Most of the other content comes courtesy of the Roo network. The computer games content for example comes via Aussie company Control Freaks and entertainment (and lots of other stuff) from WatchMojo. Not much in there that looked in-house. Some of the sport stuff is unbranded but it still feels like agency footage.
So I used the search function to have a look for Exclusive and Express Exclusive content. The majority of it was exclusive but to the third-party suppliers the Express uses. Where it was obviously exclusive to the Express it was either branded stuff like Gok Wan’s competition offer or submitted stuff like the London Zoo promo. The Hungary Grand-Prix preview is another apparent exclusive. Don’t let the branding at the end fool you. You can see the whole thing at any of the other tabloids. Try it over at The Sun for example. The player is better.
Overall
The technical implementation of video on the Express is really poor. The player’s isn’t user friendly and it’s buggy. Linking to video rather than embedding in article pages is shoddy considering the Roo player offers that technology and even when they do link, the technology lets them down. The player often jumps the linked video for a video a few items down.
The actual content of the video on the website is OK. If you are in to games then Control Freaks has a nice range of stuff and WatchMojo has so much stuff on so many subjects you will always find something but I can get that stuff anywhere. There is nothing here that is produced by the Express and that means there is nothing here that says Daily Express or shows any commitment to building a video brand. And no, paying that little extra for a PR company to get the tame celeb to say Daily Express or add a graphic is not a brand strategy.
You may ask “Why does the Express have to have a video brand?” It doesn’t. It doesn’t even need to make it’s own video. But it has chosen to have video on it’s site and it needs a better strategy than simply buying all the content options from Roo. If it’s going to have it it could take the route of selecting the best, relevant video for their audience.
One thing is for sure, at the moment the video is a very poor bolt-on and has nothing to recommend it.
So tomorrow I’ll take a look at The Express’ competition - The Daily Mail, and see if it does any better.
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