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.

This is an example of what the young hosts of WNYC’s Radio Rookies made with Popcorn Maker:

http://popcorn.webmadecontent.org/y7_

You can remix the Radio Rookies’ piece here to get a sense of how Popcorn Maker works.

Having won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for his unflinching images of the conflict in Vietnam, as AP’s picture editor he was responsible for the publication of two of the most abiding images of the conflict – the notorious picture of the “Saigon Execution” by Eddie Adams and Nick Ut’s “Napalm Girl”

During his last visit to the Club in 2007 it was noted that “old friends and competitive rivals of Horst Faas need not worry that he’s lost any of his wit, cantankerous behaviour, and trenchant, often controversial views about photojournalism and the world of media”.

A members-only reception was held for Horst Faas and there was also a public event, which was held in the Club restaurant.

Neither event was filmed, but you can read about his appearance at Frontline Club on our website. If you have any memories of Horst Faas – either of that night or of working with him, we would like to hear from you.

There were many tributes to Marie Colvin – and great stories – all recognising the qualities that made her a great journalist and remarkable friend.

Marie was killed alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik when a shell hit the makeshift press centre they were working in.

Founder of the Frontline Club Vaughan Smith said that Marie "didn’t just lose her life covering wars": "She committed herself to telling the real story of war with all that actually entails. She was one of the very best at it and was equally loved and respected by her peers."

John Owen, founding chairman of Frontline Club, said: “I can’t think of another journalist who was so universally admired”. Describing her as a “ferociously brave reporter” who was “yet so humble” about her own work, he added: “She refused to leave Dili because she thought that by staying and reporting, the Indonesians wouldn’t kill the East Timorese. She refused to walk away from frontline reporting after being targeted and losing her eye in Sri Lanka.”

The Club room fell silent for Channel 4 News’ tribute to Marie Colvin when it came on the Club room’s TV. Lindsey Hilsum, who paid tribute to Marie on the programme, said in a blog post, My Friend, Marie:

“She was exactly where she believed she should be, doing what she believed she had to do when she was killed by a rocket launched by President Bashar al-Assad’s army. The rest of us are left to work out whether we agree with her that it was worth it.”

Marie, who had hoped to be able to moderate tomorrow’s discussion on Syria, remained in the Baba Amr neighbourhood, which she said in an email to staff at the Frontline Club was at the “epicentre of the storm”.

She had decided to stay, she said, because "They are killing with impunity. Sadly I wont be able to make 24th have decided I should stay and write what I can to expose what is happening here.."

Writing in the New York Times, Neil MacFarquahar wrote that during a farewell dinner in Beirut Marie had told him: “I cannot remember any story where the security situation was potentially this bad, except maybe Chechnya”.

Henry Porter, Vanity Fair’s London editor wrote yesterday: "This evening the news from Homs has been silenced. We don’t know how many people have been killed or what areas of the town are under bombardment—and that is because one of the bravest people ever to file a story is dead, and can no longer be there to bear witness."

Her mother, Rosemarie Colvin, told the New York Times it had been pointless to try to dissuade her daughter from going to conflict zones”

“If you knew my daughter,” she said, “it would have been such a waste of words. It just wasn’t something that would even be on the plate at all. She was determined, she was passionate about what she did, it was her life. There was no saying ‘Don’t do this.’ This is who she was, absolutely who she was and what she believed in: cover the story, not just have pictures of it, but bring it to life in the deepest way you could.”

Here’s a full round-up of tributes to Marie Colvin from Frontline Club blogger Daniel Bennett

Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin remained in Syria because she was determined the terrible story of events  there had to be told.

Marie had hoped to moderate a discussion that is taking place on the growing crisis in Syria at the Frontline Club this Friday, but said in an email to programme editor Millicent Teasdale on Sunday that she had decided to stay “at the epicentre of the storm” in Baba Amr in Homs:

“They are killing with impunity. Sadly I wont be able to make 24th have decided I should stay and write what I can to expose what is happening here..”

Reports that Marie was one of two Western journalists killed in the Syrian city of Homs, when shells hit the building they were staying in, have shocked and saddened friends and colleagues at the Frontline Club.

Writing on Twitter, Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, said "Assad’s assassination of Marie Colvin: Utterly devastating: the most couragious journalist I ever knew and a wonderful reporter and writer."

Last night, Marie described on Channel 4 News the "merciless" attacks on civilians surrounding her.

She said: "I think the sickening thing is the complete merciless nature. They’re hitting civilian buildings mercilessly and without caring. The scale of it is just shocking."

She also spoke on the BBC, telling viewers: “I saw a baby die today".

A lot has changed in the years since 9/11. The date itself has become emblematic of a change in attitudes towards Islam, perhaps most notably in the country which bore witness to the infamous attacks that day. Popular opinion has shifted, and the land of the free has become an increasingly hostile environment for Muslims. American Muslim: Freedom, Faith and Fear examines what it means to be a Muslim in America today and the consequences of the fact that, for many, the words Islam and terrorism are now permanently intertwined. 

The documentary, featuring Karen Zarindast from BBC Persian and Samir Farah from BBC Arabic TV, was screened at the Frontline Club. The team travelled across the length and breadth of the United States in order to examine the lives and experiences of a vast range of American Muslims. They discovered a country in which fear and confusion surrounds Islam, and where politicians and the media often foment unrest in order to further their own objectives. What was once a thriving cultural melting pot where Muslims were welcomed has now developed into a nation over which a sinister and pervasive Islamaphobia has taken hold in the last decade.

A question and answer session followed, during which Darius Bazargan, the film’s producer, Azadeh Moaveni, the author of Lipstick Jihad, and Zarindast discussed the film and some of the key themes that emerged. One of the most important issues was the impact of American foreign policy, as Bazargan suggested in response to the question of whether or not American Muslims will ever be able to escape the dogma associated with 9/11:

“I don’t think there’s any chance of going back to the quiet life, especially because of the impact of American foreign policy in Islamic countries; either through the involvement with Israel or elsewhere. It will be less resonant if there are fewer coffins coming home, and there will be fewer coffins coming home if American foreign policy changes.”

The panel also talked about some of the difficulties faced when filming, including budgetary and time constraints, as Bazargan made clear:

“We had editorial difficulties, you’re a slave to the road in these kinds of documentaries. There were lots of interesting people we had to drop from the final cut simply because they popped up at the wrong point in our journey and didn’t fit the arc of discovery."

As the evening ended somewhat acrimoniously, with conflicting views being raised from the floor over what is clearly an emotive issue to many, Zarindast did offer a consolatory take on her experience:

“I asked people if they would leave the country. They said no. I think it was fascinating, because I spoke to people in Birmingham after some of the recent trouble and they had never been to Pakistan or Bangladesh but they said that they would leave England in an instant. Nearly everybody I spoke to in America said no… this is their country.”

“We are going to see people resisting change but it will be a major mistake that will cause a lot of problems if countries see the Arab Spring as a conspiracy,” said Khanfar, who for eight years held managed the TV network that has been credited with having contributed to the ferment that led to the uprisings that swept the region. “Any country that does not accept proper reform and serious constitutional reform will face difficulty.”

With the current perception that the Americans are withdrawing from the region, there are concerns about who will be responsible for protecting the status quo in the region. In this changing landscape, what happens in Syria remains very important, the Palestinian-born journalist told Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow:

“Syria is not like any other country, it is the cornerstone of a bloc in the region and therefore a lot of countries are worried about what is going to happen in the region when Bashar is out of power. This is why, in my opinion, the Arab world is reluctant about Syria.”

Syria is of particular concern to Iran, because if the revolution succeeds it will no longer be part of the alliance Iran is forming with Iraq and Beirut, said Khanfar, who is now president of the Sharq Forum, a think tank focusing on political development, social justice and economic prosperity in the Middle East.

“If Syria is out of it, you are talking about the decline of Iranian influence in the region and that means they may not become as “dangerous” in the Gulf as they are right now and this will give more confidence and a more relaxed environment for serious changes to take place in the region.”

Al Jazeera, which was launched in 1996, differed from other Arab channels because although heavily funded by Quatar’s royal family, it had not followed the same policy of focusing on the leaders but instead had set out to spread democracy and human rights and to feel the pulse of the region, he said:

“The whole phenomena of Al Jazeera is against the whole custom and tradition of journalism in the Arab world by that time, because it started with a different perspective about news, which before used to be something that was owned by the state and the state tailored what exactly should appear and everyone understood that TV was what the state wants us to know.

In 1996 everyone would watch TV in order to know what the state was talking about.” Asked if he was aware of the significance of what the channel’s stance as people were “flocking” to the screens to watch Al Jazeera, Khanfar said he was aware it was “a matter of life and death”:

“By that time I had seen our office in Baghdad bombed, an office in Kabul bombed, by that time we had a colleague of ours in Guantanamo, another one in court in Spain. Definitely we knew how dangerous the situation was.”

The Al Jazeera audience is “highly politicised” and would notice any change in editorial policy following his departure last year, said Khanfar, who insisted the decision to leave was his own:

“I thought for a long while that eight years was how long I could survive always being proactive and creative, and that’s enough. Also, the Arab world is living a new mood and I feel I could do something as well which Al Jazeera cannot allow me to do, which is becoming part of the transformation of this dynamic region. I would like to speak my opinion and play a more political role.”

The following week we will be launching a series of discussions, screenings and workshops examining the risks faced by journalists around the world. 

The award-winning, genre-bending documentary filmmaker Mads Brügger launches our new masterclass series, and Tweets from Tahrir is the first of our Screenings from the Frontline with Al Jazeera.

February’s #FCBBCA will bring together a distinguished panel to discuss Iran’s internal power struggle and its turbulent relationship with the West. 

We will also be examining the rebuilding of Libya and Fawzia Koofi will be discussing why she wants to become President of Afghanistan, while Matt Frei will be joining us to look back on his career.

Follow us on Twitter and catch up on any events you missed on the Forum blog or download our podcasts on iTunes.

ALL EVENTS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

There are still a few tickets left for this Saturday’s unique opportunity to hear WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange in conversation with renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. The discussion, which will be moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, will focus on the ethics and philosophy behind the work of WikiLeaks and its effect on political institutions globally.

Next week Colin Freeman will be recounting his experience of being kidnapped by Somali pirates and Peter Greste who has recently been in the country for BBC’s Panorama will be talking about the Somali people’s struggle to forge a life in a lawless land.

For July’s First Wednesday, a panel of experts will be discussing the expansion of kill/capture missions in Afghanistan, their effect on the ground and how they level with counter-insurgency hearts and minds strategy.

Follow us on Twitter and catch up on any events you missed on the Forum blog or download our podcasts on iTunes.

ALL EVENTS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Before Christmas I told a ministry communications officer to give me the brown envelope before the press conference — ‘Of course, no problem’ she joshed. After the relevant official was par-grilled, a scrimmage of journalists, soda in one paw and a meat pie in the other, started jostling to get hold of their ‘solly’ or solidarity. The brown envelopes were officially their reward for having braved the potholes and morning traffic, but also secure loyalty to the state.

These weren’t small packages either. As he walked to the lift, one journalist pulled out $15. Others say solly can be up to as much as $150, depending on the media outlet, while the average journalist’s wage is around $200 per month.

Being a stringer myself, I appreciate that a journalist’s remuneration is pathetic and local wages terrible. Clearly I’m not averse to the odd sausage roll, but something smells in Ghana’s media, and it’s not the cheese-pineapple skewers and fresh coffee. If you want to rake in greenbacks, you should probably join the ranks of those who iron their shirts and clean their shoes.

Ghana’s brown-envelope culture isn’t a state monopoly. Perhaps worse, although hardly surprising, foreign embassies say they have to pay solly just to get feet through the door to promote their latest one-armed, transgender orphanage eradication program.

On a recent trip to Ghana’s gold mining area a former hack told me he would regularly accept money from major international mining companies to keep schtum on potentially damaging stories.

I’ve worked in just a handful of African nations but Ghana, the only country on the continent to have democratically ushered in two successive changes of government, appears to have the most lackluster fourth estate. It’s not a question of freedom, it is standards.

There are a few very talented exceptions such as undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas who has exposed corruption, ineptitude, criminal gangs and rot all over Ghana, perhaps most famously dressed as a woman and more recently as a fat white man.

Nonetheless, Ghana’s media appear toothless when compared to their counterparts in east Africa, and I suspect the absence of accountability has bred ambivalence in the populace. While their last election was a disastrous distortion of democracy, Kenyans of every stripe are vociferous consumers of news, views and gossip because their papers, radio and TV are feisty and scandal-hungry.

The long-term ramifications of petty bribery or ‘goodwill’ are obvious. Who would pursue a difficult story exposing a human rights violation or government indiscretion when there’s a press conference at 11:00 with a free buffet thrown in? How can the media be expected to hold the government to account if a significant part of their income depends on spooning with authority?