In the data journalism realm, there is the Data Journalism Handbook:
School of Data provides courses in how to source and visually present data.
A final resource to watch and try is from the Codecademy startup, which provides free tutorials in how to use HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Python and several APIs including YouTube.
]]>Meskel Square = clever, good, local. South by South West = geographic, but not specific, nice. Noodlepie = genius.
I’ve just picked a new name for a new website I’m planning. The name’s bloody brilliant. How did I think of the name? Here’s my foolproof list of words to avoid when naming a blog for journalists in odd places,
Avoid Dispatch. Or Dispatches.
"Dispatches from… (insert far away field + photo of white person standing somewhere unlikely + Moleskine notebook + linen suit, smiling while surrounded by non-white people) is not a good look. Avoid it.
Never ever use "Journo". Not once. Ever. Be careful with how you use Journalist. Likewise the word Foreign.
Avoid Beat. Never use Global. The BBC can use Global, but you can’t.
And Correspondent. Or Letters. Or anything to do with the postal system.
Approach Reporter with care. And Reports. A couple of friends use one or the other and get away with it, but you probably won’t.
Steer clear of Times, Chronicle, Journal and Inquirer. And Daily too. Chances are you’ll get bored with blogging and Daily will just be a lie.
Record, Voice, Sentinel, Telegraph, Express and Courier are all a bit up themselves.
Independent will make you sound like a cutesy jingly-jangly shambling band from some 1985 hick English arsepit. And you’re probably not really Independent anyway.
And don’t use Wire. Never use Wire. Or criticise anyone who uses Wire.
Apart from that, anything goes. Oh… and if anyone wants @dispatches I’m open to offers.
Originally posted in the Kigaliwire Roughbook.
]]>Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has "been around the block a few times" and is offering advice to would be foreign correspondents on how to report on a global crisis for YouTube’s Reporters Center. The centre aims to give advice to newbies and non-journalists,
The YouTube Reporters’ Center is a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting. link
As for Kristoff’s first tip? The clue’s in the title of this post.
]]>I said I wouldn’t say anything more about Joe the War Correspondent. And I won’t. But, CNN’s Rick Sanchez does have something to say to the war correspondent who thinks “media should be abolished from reporting”.
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Well if you are, Rob has some sage advice… and be sure to read the comments. Frontline bloggers David and Alex both blogged from Somalia earlier this year. I hope they don’t go back for a while. Not sure my nerves could take it.
]]>]]>“I think divine intervention saved me. The gunman was less than a metre away from me,†an injured Sami told Daily Times at his hospital bed, recovering from bullet wounds in his chest, left arm and right hand…
“Peshawar will become off-limits to foreign journalists, as the enemy is unknown and you donâ€t know who wants to kill you. In such a situation, it is difficult for journalists to work,†Faizullah Jan, a lecturer in journalism at the Peshawar University, said. link
]]>“Somalia is quite unique in its dangers,” he said. “You have to be particularly well-versed in the ways of Africa, and in particular the ways of Somalia, to travel there… Journalists anywhere in the world don’t have the best reputation, and people sometimes assume that in Somalia, people wouldn’t have these opinions… But I can guarantee, they have laptops and the internet, and they will know exactly who you are and what you are doing there, so journalists and particularly Western journalists must not take them for granted.
“It is not an easy profession we are in, and it is tempting to walk into areas of danger to try and make a name for yourself, but it is not a joke. Somalia is an extremely fragile country, it is a warzone, with its own set of rules… You have to have permission from warlords or be with an NGO (non-government organisation) without either of those, you will definitely be walking into trouble.” link
Vaughan Smith, Frontline Club founder, talks to Press TV Iran about the dangers of freelancing on the frontline in the light of the recent kidnapping of Amanda Lindhout, Nigel Brennan, their Somali driver and two Somali guards. Vaughan makes the point that most journalists who are kidnapped or killed are from the countries they are reporting in. It’s something I’ve wondered about in the Lindhout story in Somalia. Three Somalians were kidnapped along with the journalists, and are arguably in far greater danger than the foreign journalists, yet we hear very little about them. You have to do some digging just to find out their names… This is just one of the reasons the Frontline Club set up the Fixer’s Fund over a year ago.
In response to the murder of Ajmal Naqshbandi in Afghanistan we have started a fund for the families of fixers killed or injured while working in international media. link
You can donate to the fund here. I continue to update the original post about the kidnappings in Somalia with the latest news, what little there is of it, as and when it appears on the wires.
]]>]]>Donâ€
Reuters David Viggars discusses why he decided to become a news photographer on the Reuters blog,
]]>[The images of the Chinese earthquake] remind me what has always been so compelling about my job – the ease and speed with which still pictures can impart so much readily understood information to so many people. link