i came across this blog about a news embargo on a kidnap case in columbia which might be useful for cross-referencing in our EMBARGO report.
joey
August 3, 2008
June 28, 2008
THE COMPLEAT JOURNALIST
There was a time when journalists were associated only with being exclusive print media practitioners – being on the scene with a notepad and a pencil, getting the news, interviewing characters, beating deadlines by personally submitting their stories to newspaper editors. Writing skills and proficiency in both the English and Filipino languages were enough tools to earn their bread and butter. But, as technological evolution would have it, those times are gone.
Nowadays, for a journalist to survive in the cutthroat competition that is news writing, it becomes almost impossible to stick to being one-dimensional as far as news gathering and reporting are concerned. The current rule of the trade seems to be this: to toe the media line, you have to be tech-savvy. And you only have two choices to be “in”: sink or swim.
To swim, a journalist will do well to listen to the dictates of the infotechnocrats – the people responsible for the innovation in technology that makes for quicker dissemination of information to the public.
Morse codes, telegrams, beepers, even telefaxes have been outmoded and the wonderful world of the Internet has been opened for the entire humanity to discover. You don’t need to buy newspaper to get the news. You don’t need five years to apply for a telephone line. You don’t need snail mail to send photos to loved ones far away. You don’t need to wait a couple of days or even weeks to get a much-anticipated response from someone.
Just listen to the sound of these new information tools: Skype, Yahoo, Google, Friendster, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Text Messaging, YouTube. These and more will allow for the metamorphosis of a fledgling writer to a compleat journalist.
Here’s what they mean and how they can be useful tools of the journalism trade:
1. Skype (click to download)
Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Skype created a little piece of software that makes communicating with people around the world easy and fun. With Skype you can say hello or share a laugh with anyone, anywhere. And if both of you are on Skype, it’s free.
Imagine, interviewing someone from anywhere in the globe and recording your telephone conversation in your own computer? How helpful can that be give authenticity to your report?
2. Twitter (click to sign-in)
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter web site, short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.
What better way for news to be confirmed, passed on, elaboted by sources and contacts in your own social network?
3. Flickr (click to create an account)
Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform that allows users to share personal photographs and bloggers to make use of the site as a photo repository.
Can you imagine how convenient it is for a photojournalist to share a moment in time captured by a digital camera? And for a news or feature writer to be able to cull from a wide repository of photographs?
4. IM
Instant Messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.
Who has not tried a Yahoo Messenger chat for instance? Using this conveniently transforms an interview into a valuable transcribed information.
5. SMS
Short Message Service (SMS) is a communications protocol allowing the interchange of short text messages between mobile telephone devices. SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application on the planet.
Posted by JOEY L. GARCIA, 28 June 2008
June 27, 2008
tools of the trade
As technology advances through time, so does the way news stories are made available to the public. Far from simply publishing all sorts of stories (national news, feature articles, sports stories, wire stories, etc.) in newspapers daily, journalists and media outfits alike have now adopted the Internet (the Web) as an ally in disseminating information online.
Hence, I invite you all to join me as I learn and discover the various innovations that make journalism more interactive and fascinating.
I. SKYPE
Skype is a computer software program that allows users to make telephone calls via the Internet. Skype-to-Skype calls to computers or mobile phones are free of charge, while those made to non-Skype computers or mobile phone users come with certain fees.
Skype was founded in 2003 by entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis with the help of a group of software programmers/developers. It has its main headquarters on Luxembourg, and several offices on London, Tallinn, Tartu, Prague, and San Jose, California.
Aside from VoIP [Voice-over-Internet protocol] services, other features such as instant messaging, video conferencing, and file transfer can also be made through Skype.
II. TWITTER
Twitter was first launched in October 2006 and employed as a research and development program five months after by San Francisco-based start-up company “Obvious, LLC”. Today, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging website that allows users to post updates [“tweets”, text-based messages up to 140 characters long].
III. SHORT-MESSAGING SERVICE (SMS)
Short-messaging service, as we all know, gained popularity with the advent of “text messaging” through mobile phones. It is a communication system that allows certain network providers’ users to send and receive short text messages to and from their cellular phones.
IV. FLICKR
Flickr is an online community — one of the first Web 2.0 applications — that offers a variety of web services, most prominent of which is its image and video hosting capabilities.
*NOTE: Most of the website links in this post have used “Wikipedia” as its primary link. For further informations, please click the related links in the respective pages.
Posted by: Erickson Beco (June 27, 2008, 7:10 p.m.)
LIBEL DEFINED
Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code defines libel as “a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance tending to cause the dishonour, discredit, or contempt of a natural or judicial person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.”
Judge Gabriel Ingles, in his Cebu Daily News Legal Notes column, writes on libel: its nature, remedies and venue.
In 2006, presidential spouse Mike Arroyo, sued 42 journalists, columnists and editors for stories he deemed to insinuate his being corrupt.
Recently, Ninez Cacho-Olivares was sentenced to a minimum of six months imprisonment for her alleged libelous column against the Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angcanco Law Firm (also known as The Firm).
Here’s another interesting point-of-view from The Daily Dose on libel.
Posted by JOEY L. GARCIA, 27 June 2008
EMBARGO DEFINED
Merriam-Webster Online defines embargo as 1: an order of a government prohibiting the departure of commercial ships from its ports2: a legal prohibition on commerce <a trade embargo>3: stoppage, impediment; especially : prohibition <I lay no embargo on anybody’s words — Jane Austen>4: an order by a common carrier or public regulatory agency prohibiting or restricting freight transportation.
In the field of journalism, however, a similar system called news embargo is also practiced. Wikipedia explains: a news embargo or press embargo is a request by a source that the information or news provided by that source not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met.
The topic on news embargo came to light again in view of the recent kidnapping of ABS-CBN’s Ces Drilon, her crew and Professor Octavio Dinampo.
A news blackout on the abduction was requested by ABS-CBN.
Here’s a thought-provoking take on the news blackout from AlterNation101 and the embargo from The Daily Dose of Manuel L. Quezon III.
Posted by
JOEY L. GARCIA, 27 June 2008
