Spalpeen

I’m helping to run a campaign to free Benjamin Geen, a former nurse who was wrongly convicted of killing and harming his patients. Please check out the campaign site, where we will be posting news and information about the case as it proceeds. Make sure you add your email address to the mailing list so we can keep you updated.

Also please read the Independent on Sunday’s report into Ben’s case, and have a look at the Innocence Network for more information on the London Innocence Project.

Below is an essay I submitted to David Leigh’s Investigative Journalism class.

The biggest factor influencing the effectiveness of investigative journalism is the state and the laws within which it is being practiced. The effectiveness of journalism is often defined within the paradigm of “states”. Reporters Without Borders maintains the press freedom index, which ranks states according to their record of press freedom. Even in conversation the importance of the state in influencing journalism is repeated: we’ve all heard the stereotype that the British press (with its tabloid newspapers) scrutinises the behaviour and actions of politicians more effectively than the American press.

I believe that direct and indirect influence from the state system in which journalism is conducted is one of the biggest hindrances to the furthering of universal principles of investigative journalism, and that investigative journalism is most potent when it bypasses or overrides this influence. What should be desired is an international attitude to investigative journalism, based in the principles of international human rights law, and international cooperation. The international system of states is the biggest roadblock to this aim.

It’s useful to start with a country with one of the most powerful states in the modern world: China. Until relatively recently the Chinese state could have been said to have encouraged investigative journalism. Over the last 30 years, loosened party control of the media and new media outlets have firmly established investigative journalism practices within mainstream media. In the past party officials encouraged investigative journalists willing to spend time in digging out corruption. “These new journalistic developments were not in opposition to the party: on the contrary, the party leadership encouraged and supported many of them.” Continue Reading »

Part one of the discussion.

Part two of the discussion (note: I missed the last 15ish minutes as my laptop battery couldn’t quite hack it).

Full blog post coming tomorrow at Catch21.

Present at the event:
Guido Fawkes: http://order-order.com/
Jonathan Isaby of Conservative Home: http://conservativehome.blogs.com/
Sunny Hundal of Liberal Conspiracy: http://liberalconspiracy.org/
Mick Fealty of Slugger O’Toole: http://www.sluggerotoole.com/
Nick Cohen: http://nickcohen.net/

Video of Nick Cohen talking about the trappings of technology as saviour.

Video of Nick Cohen “responding” to an audience comment.

And Paul Staines revealing information and advice about his commenters.

Photo credit: The Pub by mild_swearwords on Flickr

James Brown has an interesting anecdotal post up over at Organ Grinder about the best time to get articles commissioned in magazines. He says this week is the best time due to a combination of “end of year list exhaustion”, plenty of trips to the pub and lowered expectations as to what stories are out there.

I think the situation is a little different on newspapers.

Most of the national newspapers have had their Christmas parties already*, and this week most reporters are working their arses off trying to get all the work in so they can be with their families on Christmas Day. Just think of the Sunday papers. Their busiest days of the week happens to coincide with Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

One of the tips from Brown’s post is to get chummy with editors who are sloshed up in the pub after work. I’m not sure if starting a commissioning relationship with someone who’s drunk is a great idea: if they don’t know who you are at the pub, they’re unlikely to remember you in the morning!

The best way to get commissioned is still, and has always been, pitching the best stories you can find, but I’m sure there’s something to be said for pitching them when expectations are low. I think Brown’s post bears that out: the scoops he mentions includes an unprofiled Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and a Jack Dee before his first TV appearance. That’s how you get commissioned.

*News International’s party had to win the prize this year. Apparently they hired out a massive warehouse, and had Jedward, Peter Andre and others performing next to giant stalls themed to each paper.

The Mirror.co.uk’s online team asked me to put a list of Twitter tips together, so I thought I’d open it up to the floor. Make sure you check out a similar list “What is Twitter?” that I made for Channel 4 News. Here’s what I have so far. Please add tips in the comments or @Coneee!

Twitter tips
Be useful. Help other people and they’ll help you.
Live tweet at events! Don’t just sit in the audience, tell people what you’re doing.
Be unique. Send links out to information that people can’t get easily or might not see elsewhere.
Ask for help. Tell people what you’re working on and ask them for tips.
Own your niche. Designate a large proportion of your tweets (50%?) to the niche that you’re writing about.
Don’t overdo it. Be selective about your tweets.
Be positive. Nobody like a Twitter moaner.
Make people laugh. Share jokes and funny observations about current events.
Give credit. People like helping other people, so thank them!
Find out what people are talking about. What links are being exchanged, what person is being talked about etc.
Find people at events and ask them for information.

Some great behaviour tips at Mashable and from one of @PaulBradshaw’s excellent presentations:

Technical tips
Get a simple, easy to read (and repeat) username
Put up a nice profile pic that has your face in most of the frame
Place a link to a list of your own articles, not to a homepage
Your profile should have your job description

Tools
http://www.tweetdeck.com/ (desktop/mobile software capable of multiple search feeds)
http://twitterfall.com/ (customisable feeds set by location)
http://tweetmeme.com/ (top links on Twitter)
http://www.helpareporter.com/ (might be a little US focused)
http://wefollow.com/ (search for people by hashtag)
http://muckrack.com/ (journalists on Twitter)
http://www.mediaontwitter.com/ (more journalists on Twitter)

Good examples (could do with more!)
http://twitter.com/BreakingNews

I missed a night out to go and work procrastinate, and had this conversation with Simon when he got back after midnight.

Me
we need to make princess louise pub our default
pity its in holborn

Simon
calm down, just a pub
love the angel

Me
angel is a shithole
princess louise is cheaper and a lush pub

Simon
A man on the table next to us started doing a wee under the table
then he got into a fight
then the barman ran outside
he wolwhistled
wolf whistled
then a plice car pulled up
police
it was funny

Me
damn

Simon
then they put some bleach down
it smelled
all in all a good time was had by all

Me
dude can i post this conversation on my blog

Simon
ok, but you have to include all the typos

I’m working on an investigative journalism assignment in David Leigh’s class at City University and one of our first assignments is putting together a profile on the business interests of notable figures. Our group chose the Candy Bros, so I put together this spreadsheet which lists the companies that Nicholas Candy is involved in. Just putting it up here in case anyone Googling might be interested. It took a few hours of trawling through Nexis and Companies House.

I’m currently sat in an online journalism tutorial at City University. They’re currently teaching the class “how to write for websites”. All these points are pretty much verbatim from our tutor, with my comments in [brackets]. This is what we’ve been told so far:

Don’t put an external link in the first three paragraphs of an article, because you don’t want to send people away from your content. [This is a highly cynical tactic. Your users will hate you if you don't link clearly and often to sources.]

Make sure you alter the link type to “open in new window” because then people won’t leave your content. [This is a dreadful policy. Don't tell web users how to browse your content.]

A perfectly written online article will result in people closing the tab at the end, not visiting another (presumably competing) website or link. [Nonsense. You want people to click another link at the end of your article. Preferably to another article by you. But not exclusively.]

Education is not as good now as it was in the past, and people have shorter attention spans, so you should always write short sentences in the active voice: ideally one sentence per paragraph. [I agree with the sentiment that you should write concisely, but I don't agree that readers are dumb. I believe in challenging readers. They respond well to that.]

People read in an “F” pattern (thanks Jakob!). [So maybe you should put ads at the top left?]

Write in an “inverse pyramid”, or a “zooming out” style with the facts in the “news epicentre”. [Sure, why not? Put the information first]

We’re now covering Jakob Nielsen’s “Reading on the Web” about usability and writing style. Keep it simple, stupid.

You can’t compete with Reuters, or the BBC, so why try? What is the angle that you have that does the job ot telling people what is happening in the world today? Write slightly more analytical work that hangs on what is happening now. [I think the point is you need to write for a niche.]

to be continued

Lots of outrage on Twitter about Dannii Minogue’s comments about Danyl on X-Factor. The quote is here, on an MSN live blog of the event.

“I thought it was an amazing X Factor performance, but if the papers are anything to go by, you didn’t need to change those gender references.”

@krishgm I don’t think Dannii meant that as it came out…but it was bloody stupid thing to say

@darrenwaters Oh my god. The Danni comment is unbelievably crass and appalling. Homophobic fucktart. I’m outraged.

@charlesarthur It wasn’t just that Dannii said it once, but that she said it *twice*. Cheryl probably getting flashbacks to CBB.

An Advertising Standards Authority “complaints manager” sent me this email the other day: “Since my last email I have spoken to Zoe Griffin’s agent. He has given his assurance that any future reference to Voltz on the website will make clear it is an advertisement.”

Also in the comments on my last post about Zoe Griffin, is a note that Voltz had Zoe marked on its website as a “celebrity ambassador”. So that confirms her deal with Voltz.

I had no idea that the ASA would take up this case: I was expecting an email along the lines of “we don’t cover private websites”. It’s great news that they’re willing to get involved and make a few phone calls, even when the publisher isn’t a major newspaper or magazine.

Unfortunately, if you go to Zoe’s site right now, you’ll notice that no less than the last nine posts refer directly or indirectly to the Voltz brand, with no disclosure of her financial relationship with the company. I’ll be mentioning this to the ASA representative. Despite this result, if you see anyone else (in the UK) slipping towards undisclosed advertorial content on their blog, do shoot the ASA a quick email and follow up with them.

In other news, if you’re a subscriber to Press Gazette, make sure to read my interview with some top magazine and newspaper editors about advertorial ethics and standards, set against the ASA’s rulings on the Express newspaper advertorials.