Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Feb 8, 2012, 2:41 pm
The world of journalism and Twitter is buzzing following Sky News’s new policy on Twitter and the BBC’s new guidance on breaking news. Both organisations have told their journalists not to break news on Twitter first. In a post on the BBC’s Editors blog, social media editor Chris Hamilton ac...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Feb 8, 2012, 2:00 pm
The world of journalism and Twitter is buzzing following Sky News’s new policy on Twitter and the BBC’s new guidance on breaking news. Both organisations have told their journalists not to break news on Twitter first. In a post on the BBC’s Editors blog, social media editor Chris Hamilton ac...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Feb 3, 2012, 10:36 am
An analysis of 43,738 tweets from 1,443 users offers some valuable insights into emerging communication norms on Twitter. The study (PDF) by researchers Paul André of Carnegie Mellon, Michael Bernstein of MIT, and Kurt Luther of Georgia Tech aimed to uncover what makes for a good message o...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jan 27, 2012, 9:57 am
For this month’s Carnival of Journalism, Michael Rosenblum asks if a good journalist can be a good capitalist? The question is timely, given the raft of new entrepreneurial programs at journalism schools. There has always been an entrepreneurial streak in journalism, typified in the freelance jo...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jan 19, 2012, 10:28 am
The demise of Eastman Kodak is a story of a company which did not take on the challenges of disruptive innovation. After 133 years, the company has filed for bankruptcy. Essentially, Kodak was caught out by a combination of factors. The technologies that enable us to represent with world in still...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Dec 9, 2011, 10:59 am
... ’s Carnival of Journalism, hosted by The Guardian Developer blog. Journalists are ... key question as it focuses on the intersection of emerging communication technologies ... ’t have an understanding of the technology. More importantly, they should ... about how it works and the tech...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Nov 29, 2011, 11:47 am
Watch the video of our lively discussion of the impact of social media on journalism, featuring  Liz Heron, Social Media Editor at The New York Times,Karen Pinchin, founding editor of OpenFile Vancouver, and Steve Pratt, Director of CBC Radio 3 and CBC Radio Digital Programming and myself. The e...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Nov 14, 2011, 10:20 am
The news that mainstream media organisations use Twitter as a broadcast channel is hardly surprising. The study of Twitter feeds from 13 major news outlets in the US by the Pew Research Center’s Project in Excellence in Journalism is in line with earlier academic studies. The Pew study, in col...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Nov 4, 2011, 7:14 pm
I’m honoured to have nominated as Canada’s top social media maven in the 2011 Digi Awards. Also up for the award are Erica Ehm, who set up the online magazine YummyMummyClub.ca, and YouTube personality Nadine Sykora. The winners will be announced on December 6th at the finale of nextMEDI...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 30, 2011, 5:19 pm
Here are the slides and audio from my presentation at the Journalism Interactive conference at the University of Maryland. The title of the talk was Share, Like, Recommend: Decoding the Social Media News Consumer. Abstract: Social media is becoming ever more ingrained in the experience of news c...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 29, 2011, 9:37 am
The Washington Post’s Mark Luckie gave an insight into his role during a session on innovative storytelling at the Journalism Interactive conference. Luckie is national innovations editor at the Post. His job is to be responsible for web section of the national coverage, figuring out a web str...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 28, 2011, 3:48 pm
Here is the video from the emerging research panel I took part in at the Journalism Interactive conference at the University of Maryland. The three presentations were by Zizi Papacharissi of University of Illinois at Chicago, Adrienne Russell of the University of Denver and myself. The session was...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 28, 2011, 3:35 pm
One of the leading thinkers on journalism ethics, Stephen Ward, laid out a six-point approach towards teaching journalism ethics at a time of media transition at the Journalism Interactive conference. Ward’s starting point is that in a mixed media environment, everyone has the potential to perfor...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 28, 2011, 2:25 pm
Amy Webb of @webbmedia took the Journalism Interactive conference on a tour of emerging tech trends for academia. She started off by talking about gestural technology, showing as an example a Wacom product that allows you to draw on paper and upload the image digitally. Webb also mentioned Livesc...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 28, 2011, 9:38 am
The Journalism Interactive conference at the University of Maryland kicks off with a panel on social media, with an introduction by Mashable editor-in-chief Adam Ostrow, @adamostrow. Jim Long, @newmediajiim, from NBC News, starts by pointing out how social media has shifted power from a few peopl...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 26, 2011, 5:42 pm
The wealth of multimedia or social media storytelling tools available can be bewildering for journalists. Often seasoned pros asked me, what is the one thing I should learn and add to my reporting toolkit? To my mind, that’s the right attitude but the wrong question.  Journalists need to be open...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 18, 2011, 9:02 pm
Hubert T. Lacroix, President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, addressed UBC students on the future of Canadian public broadcasting at the Liu Institute for Global Affairs, UBC, on October 18 2011. In a wide-ranging talk, Lacroix touched on CBC’s mandate, public funding, access to information and the ...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Oct 13, 2011, 8:07 pm
The latest survey of Canadian online habits offers some interesting reading for the news industry. The Stats Canada survey found that more than two-thirds of Internet users (68%), read or watch the news online. Keeping up with events is one of the top online activities, following e-mail (93%), brow...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 30, 2011, 6:12 pm
For this month’s Carnival of Journalism, host Andrew Pergam asked “What is the role of online video in the newsroom of the future?” Online video has been around for more than a decade but it has taken some time for journalists that video on the web is not the same as video on television....
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 30, 2011, 4:47 pm
For a second year running, Reportr.net, is one of the finalists for best blog in the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The blog is nominated (PDF) in the business-to-business, professional, scholarly category. I am honoured that the judges selected my blog as one of the finalists. Reportr.net won...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 27, 2011, 1:58 pm
The brutal killing of Macias Castaneda in Mexico reportedly in retribution for her social media posts about drug cartels is shocking. Castaneda was a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo daily newspaper, Primera Hora, rather than a journalist. Police are investigating whether she was targeted by ...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 25, 2011, 11:26 am
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists in the Online Journalism Awards. The General Excellence Awards went to BBC News, The Globe and Mail, Voice of San Diego, NJ Spotlight, OWNI and La Nacion in their  respective categories. The UBC Graduate School of Journalism was a runner-up in the...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 22, 2011, 1:18 pm
A Pew Research into trust in the US media offers some insights into the impact of social media in the news diet of Americans. Pew found that just over a quarter (27%) of adults say they regularly or sometimes get news or news headlines through Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites. Th...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 9, 2011, 5:56 am
The second day of the Future of Journalism conference was opened with a keynote by Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Picking up from Emily Bell’s Thursday keynote, McChesney agreed there wer...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 8, 2011, 11:34 am
One of studies presented at the Future of Journalism conference looked at the practice of updating stories on news websites. Kostas Saltzis from the University of Leicester looked at how the news story was changing, given a 24/7 news cycle in an online environment when a story can be constantly upd...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 8, 2011, 7:28 am
Emily Bell, professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism, kicked off the Future of Journalism conference discussing the many futures of journalism. Talking about how we have viewed the profession, Bell argued that jo...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 7, 2011, 5:41 am
On Friday 9 September, I am presenting a second paper at the Future of Journalism conference at Cardiff on how social media is changing the way we get our news and information. Here is the abstract and slides from the paper, Your friend as editor: The shift to a personalized social news stream Thi...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 7, 2011, 4:19 am
On Thursday 8 September, I’ll be presenting my paper, Tweets and truth: Journalism as a discipline of collaborative verification, at the Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff. For those who can’t make it, here is the abstract from the paper and the slides from my presentation. This paper ...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Sep 3, 2011, 7:37 pm
This week I’m off to the Future of Journalism conference at Cardiff University, September 8-9. The conference brings together the latest research into what is happening in journalism. The keynote speakers this year are Robert W. McChesney and Emily Bell, formerly of the Guardian and now Di...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Aug 31, 2011, 5:18 pm
The finalists in the 2011 Online Journalism Awards bring together an impressive range of digital media from around the world. In a year marked by momentous events such as the Arab Spring and distressing disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the list includes heavyweights such as the N...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Aug 18, 2011, 9:42 am
The runaway popularity of social media is prompting a rethink of rules on election reporting in Canada. During the last federal vote in May, Elections Canada warned people against tweeting or sharing on Facebook the results from polls in the east of the country, before voting had ended in the west....
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Aug 11, 2011, 11:56 am
David Cameron’s statement on social media and the riots in England risks stirring a moral panic about social networking. Speaking in parliament, Cameron said: Everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Aug 10, 2011, 1:28 pm
There is a glimmer of hope in the latest report on the job market for journalism and communication grads in the US. Students graduating in 2010 faced better prospects than those looking for jobs in 2009, according to the University of Georgia’s new Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communica...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jul 26, 2011, 10:34 am
Here is a brief write-up of some of the main points from my talk at the Screen Futures conference in Australia on the promise and practice of participatory journalism. The talk was based on findings in my co-authored book, Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers, into h...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jul 25, 2011, 10:58 am
During my trip to Australia, I was invited to deliver a keynote at the Screen Futures conference in Melbourne. In the talk, I explored the promise and practice of participatory journalism. It draws on the data from my co-authored book, Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newsp...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jul 1, 2011, 5:18 pm
I am taking some vacation time so this blog will be on hold for most of July. Happy holidays everyone and thanks for reading.
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jun 24, 2011, 10:25 am
BBC News political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg built up a large following on Twitter with her mix of news, commentary and colour. Her move to ITV News in September has raised questions over who “owns” the almost 60,000 people who follow @BBCLauraK. The Guardian suggests that “rather tha...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jun 17, 2011, 10:13 am
Patric Lane, health and science editor at UNC Chapel Hill drew on Mark Twain to frame social media in his presentation at the WorldViews Conference on media and higher education in Toronto on Thursday. Lane skilfully drew from Twain’s comments on the benefits of travel to highlight the appeal of...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jun 16, 2011, 3:38 pm
I had the honour of introducing the keynote speaker on social media, Sidneyeve Matrix, at the WorldViews conference on media and education. The session was packed, though some arrive after we started since an earlier session over-ran. So I am posting my introductory comments that were intended to ...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jun 16, 2011, 11:17 am
Here are the slides from my talk at the Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education in Toronto, June 16 2011. It examines how social media is changing the way scholars disseminate their research and raises questions about the way we evaluate academic authority. UPDATE: The LSE Impact blog ...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Jun 15, 2011, 2:54 pm
The Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education will put the spotlight on social media on the afternoon of Thursday 16 June. I’ll be talking part in a panel discussion on the implications of social media for universities at the end of the day. My focus will be on the implications of soci...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - May 30, 2011, 10:48 am
There were two significant developments in the media in Canada last week. The Huffington Post crossed the 49th parallel to set up Huff Post Canada and one of the largest newspaper groups, the PostMedia Network, dipped its toes into paywalls. In my first post for the HuffPo, I discuss the metered m...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - May 20, 2011, 1:48 pm
For those like myself who couldn’t make it to London, the BBC has posted videos from its Social Media Summit. I’ve put these together into a YouTube playlist to make it easier to catch up with the discussions. The summit also prompted a lively discussion on Twitter, under the hashtag #BBCsms.
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - May 19, 2011, 2:45 pm
A survey of nearly 500 journalists across 12 countries offers some insights into what reporters are doing on Twitter. It found that nearly half of respondents (47 per cent) said they used Twitter to source new story angles, compared to 35 percent who used Facebook. But conventional PR sources f...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - May 11, 2011, 1:20 pm
You can almost hear journalists across newsrooms in Canada breathing a sigh of relief. Canadians still trust the mainstream media, despite the rise of social media, according to the latest Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRC) report. According to a recent online survey of 1,682 adults, nine ...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - May 9, 2011, 1:47 pm
A Pew study provides further evidence of the growing importance of social networks as a way for people to share and recommend news stories. The study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows how Facebook is increasingly driving traffic to news websites. While Goog...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - May 2, 2011, 10:13 am
The role of Twitter in breaking and spreading news of the killing of Osama bin Laden is fascinating. The raid on bin Laden was being tweeted in real-time by Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) of Abbottabad, Pakistan, even though he had no idea at the time of what was happening. The list of messages on...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Apr 29, 2011, 11:57 am
Blogs have become part of the furniture of online news sites, with many journalists enthusiastically taking up blogging as part of their daily routine. The CMRC study on news habits and social media just released shows that a minority of Canadians, 21 per cent, say they read or follow particular...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Apr 28, 2011, 11:21 am
One of the questions that came out of the CMRC report on social media and the news was about the reliability of social networks as a news source. Our study, Social Networks Transforming How Canadians Get the News (PDF), found that 71 per cent of Canadians who use social networks - more than 10 mi...
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Alfred H. posted an article on Reportr.net - Apr 27, 2011, 8:58 am
The third in the CMRC’s series of reports on the news landscape in Canada reveals the dramatic impact that Facebook, Twitter and other social media services are having on the news diet of Canadians. Our report, Social Networks Transforming How Canadians Get the News (PDF), suggests that many p...
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