http://www.spalpeen.co.uk Internet and Politics Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:37:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2010/02/28/help-free-benjamin-geen-victim-of-a-miscarriage-of-justice/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2010/02/12/limits-on-investigative-journalism-the-state/ 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.spalpeen.co.uk/2010/02/08/video-and-audio-westminster-skeptics-asks-how-influential-are-political-blogs/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/12/23/commissioning-stories-over-christmas-perfect-timing/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/12/16/twitter-tips-for-journalists-mirrorcouk-edition/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/11/19/a-taste-of-london/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/11/18/nicholas-candys-business-interests/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/11/16/online-journalism-writing-tips-at-city-university/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/10/10/dannii-minogue-homophobe/ 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 ... http://www.spalpeen.co.uk/2009/09/20/asa-rules-on-zoe-griffin-blogging-case/