Legal challenges facing online journalists

Had some media law refresher training this morning. It was tough going back three years and trying to remember specific cases but the best bit of the session were the debates about the challenges now faced by journalism when it comes to online and the law.

The web is moving quickly and with certain acts dating back to to the last century, you won’t find mention of Facebook in the legal statements. First things first, if you’re unsure about media law go and grab a copy of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists. You won’t regret it.

The three main things we discussed were dealing with breaking news online, and in particular breaking crime news, the use of content from social media sites (particularly images) and commenting on stories by users. Read the rest of this entry »

Hacks and hackers day: Using data to track Bobbies on the Beat

Got up ridiculously early on Friday 16th July to head up the motorways, with Joni Alexander in tow, to take part in the ScraperWiki Hacks and Hackers event in Liverpool.

Despite feeling as though we’d stumbled into the middle of a Liverpool Daily Post & Echo school outing, we soon found ourselves immersed in trying to use data to tell a story and do something useful with it.

Media organisations have access to, possess and make use of a lot of data. But how much they make use of it, is limited. The Guardian is certainly leading the way with the DataBlog, to give you the numbers behind the headlines but particularly in regional and local journalism there isn’t a lot of spewing out of data. That’s mainly because there just aren’t the resources or the time. Read the rest of this entry »

Learning to LEAD

Went to a Leadership Launchpad event on Monday 7th September at the New Continental on Broadgate, Preston.

It was an event hosted by North West Vision and Media and it was aimed at getting the leaders of creative industry into a leadership programme, called LEAD.

LEAD operates via many host institution’s, the one we were being sold was run by Lancaster University, and it was interesting to find out what was offered by the programme. LEAD offers the chance to learn more about leadership, especially if your business is three/four years underway and you need the chance to step back and get a different viewpoint. It’s not like a degree course, it’s very hands-on and there’s lots of workshops, guest speakers and action-learning.

The unique thing about this LEAD programme is that it is only for creative businesses, as they found that people who lead these kinds of organisations have a different perspective on things compared to conventional businesses – who are often largely driven by profit and not much else.

So, while there was a bit of hard sell the evening was a good chance to learn more about the programme. I’m definitely not in a position to go on it yet but it’s the sort of thing that in a few years time, if successful with Blog Local, I might give the time of day to – and it would also depend how the business is financially!

The event was free, which was nice, and speaking to the nice ladies from North West Vision & Media afterwards it was eye-opening to find out just how many networking events there are for not just creative businesses but businesses in general across the North West and also all the opportunities for funding, partnership working, grant funding and training that North West Vision & Media can help businesses tap into.

Image credit to anselm23