journalism
Book Review: Little Bunch of Madmen – Elements of Global Reporting
I got a copy of Little Bunch of Madmen to review for the Frontline Club amongst others on the 1st of October but have since found myself reading, and unable to put it down. It is quite compelling and ever so useful. It has since accompanied me everywhere and has become an indispensable part of […]
Afghanistan in pictures- reminding us all of the price of war
On the eve of Remembrance Day, Afghanistan and the soldiers fighting there will be at the forefront of the minds of many. Adam Ferguson, a photojournalist who has covered the war in Afghanistan extensively, will be speaking at the Frontline Club on the 10th about his work there and beyond.
A week of debate, insight and parties in the Forum
Does the Demotix citizen journalism agency offer a model for the future or will it simply undercut the professionals? Love them or hate them, Demotix has made its mark on the industry. Our networking party tonight offers the opportunity to meet Demotix CEO Turi Munthe and hear about their work as well as network and […]
Frontline Awards 2009
Ahead of this year’s Frontline Awards on 25 November here is a quick recap of last year’s winners. Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor in chief of the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader who was murdered on 8 January 2009 was posthumous awarded the Frontline Memorial Award. Wickrematunge was one of Sri Lanka’s most courageous and […]
TV journalism in the 21st century: The real golden age?
View in iTunes Featuring: — Peter Horrocks, BBC director of global news — Ben Cohen, Channel 4 News technology correspondent — Greg Beitchman, global editor of the Reuters news agency — Simon Bucks, associate editor at Sky News. Chaired by Matt Wells, head of audio at the Guardian, and presenter of the Media Talk podcast. There is much talk […]
The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent on new tools for journalists
Harriet Sherwood reflects on life as a foreign correspondent after four months in Jerusalem for The Guardian. Here she offers an assessment of the new platforms available to journalists: "…in the digital age, there are other platforms to consider. I have flirted with Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook. The former seems a useful […]
BBC Newsnight says MoD refused to provide figures for Sangin attacks
British forces have handed over responsibility for security in Sangin, Afghanistan to their U.S. counterparts. More than a hundred British soldiers lost their lives in the district. As part of their research for last night’s coverage of this story, BBC Newsnight wanted the figures for "significant attacks on coalition forces in Sangin". They were trying […]
Should local voices replace foreign correspondents?
Solana Larsen, one of the co-founders of Global Voices, argues that local bloggers and journalists are able to connect us deeply to the stories they tell and are unencumbered by the news production process in Western media newsrooms: "Events don’t look the same when they are told from the inside out. I am reminded of […]
Embedded in Afghanistan: “All you can do is give a snapshot”
Embedded journalism in Afghanistan is on the agenda at the Frontline Club this evening. Several journalists are on the panel including Caroline Wyatt, (BBC), Tim Marshall, (Sky News) and the Club’s founder Vaughan Smith. While they’ll be discussing Afghanistan and embedding tonight, The Independent‘s Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, Kim Sengupta, will be heading back to […]
Upcoming paper on the BBC’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks
Just a note to let you know that later this month I’ll be speaking about the BBC’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The paper is a case study of the BBC’s adoption of live text commentary to report breaking news. Indeed, Mumbai was the first time the BBC had used a ‘live-blogging’ format […]
Reporting Vietnam: ‘We don’t only work for the news, we work for the memory’
By Gouri Sharma The only victory for the media during the Vietnam War was that the public decided it never wanted to see those images and stories again. That was a central theme at a Frontline event on Friday to mark the 35 years of the end of the Vietnam war. If you couldn’t be […]
How Wikileaks is changing journalism
Tensions were revealed in the relationship between some of the news organisations that collaborated with the whistleblowing organisation Wikileaks in publishing the Afghan War Diary when its founder Julian Assange spoke at a Frontline Club event last night. Speaking via Skype at a discussion hosted by Paddy O’Connell, presenter of BBC Broadcasting House, Assange said […]
Media round up: Wikileaks releases Afghanistan war logs
Main coverage Wikileaks "The Afghan War Diary [is] an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. "We hope its release will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the war in Afghanistan and […]
Rebecca Peyton: ‘Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister’
On 10 February 2005 BBC journalist Kate Peyton was murdered in Mogadishu, Somalia. Kate Peyton’s younger sister Rebecca Peyton will be at the Frontline Club to perform her one-woman show, which invites us into her post-Kate world: a life that is changed forever, but it goes on.
Any difference between PR and journalism?
Watch the full event here. “PR has always been the get-out for journalists who want to make more money,” said Martin Veitch who is due to join Bite Communications. “Those who wanted to drink more would become journalists instead.” This arguably outdated vision of the intrinsic differences between journalism and PR is what promted Frontline […]
McChrystal, Michael Hastings and the future of war reporting
Last week, General Stanley McChrystal was fired from his position in charge of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan after comments he made in a magazine article. As I write it looks as though he will retire from the military altogether. In the article written by journalist Michael Hastings for Rolling Stone, McChrystal and (in […]
RESCHEDULED: On the media: What now for local and regional media in the UK?
View in iTunes Tickets booked for the original date of May 19 are still valid for this event. The media industry has never faced more uncertainty or doubt over its future than now. And nowhere is that anxiety more felt than in local and regional print and broadcast publishing. Labour’s plans to revolutionise local TV […]
How Facebook users can report casualties in Afghanistan before the military
Recently Facebook changed its privacy settings which meant that a lot of people’s profile information is now far more public than they might realise. Facebook users who joined with the expectation that their information was only going to be shared with a select group of online ‘friends’ are finding that all sorts of other people […]
Wikileaks, journalism and the military
I did mention the possibility of writing a piece on the publication of a US military video by Wikileaks which depicted two Reuters journalists being killed in Iraq in 2007. But one of my colleagues at the War Studies Department, Jack McDonald, has beaten me to it. While not representing my own views, he does […]
Military bloggers turn on Michael Yon after comments about McChrystal
A while ago now I wrote about Michael Yon and the end of his embed with the British Army in Afghanistan. Well it seems the lightning has struck again – only this time much harder. Another Yon embed came to what he regarded as a premature end earlier in the month, but this time rather […]
Neil MacFarquhar’s tales of ordinary Middle Eastern life
"When you work for the New York Times, people expect you to know everything," according to Neil MacFarquhar. The journalist remembered: "Like the time I was at a dinner party in San Francisco and a woman came up to me and asked ‘Are there any normal people in the Middle East? People like you and […]
Rise of the superinjunction: why libel reform matters to journalism
Download this episode View in iTunes By Ewan Palmer and Patrick Smith The shark-infested waters of UK media law could be about to get a little safer, thanks to Ministry of Justice reforms to curb extortionate lawyer success fees earned through "no win no fee" conditional fee arrangement cases (CFA). But Jack Straw’s quick-fire […]
Going Solo: Freelance multimedia journalism is nothing to be scared of
By Jasper Jackson Journalists embarking on a freelance career should not be afraid of going it alone, but they must take advantage of new technology and multimedia toll to get noticed, according to a Frontline Club panel of freelance experts. If you couldn’t make the event, here is a video of the whole thing in […]
Going solo: Is this the time for freelancers and hyperlocal?
By Ewan Palmer By now it’s unlikely that journalists want to hear any more about how their industry is in turmoil. So how about suggesting ideas to sustain the craft: is the future in freelancing? Does it lie in entrepreneurialism? From employment to self-employed Working for yourself is an obvious solution for the […]
Embedded journalism in Afghanistan
Yesterday, I travelled up to Coventry for a conversation about embedded journalism in Afghanistan. It was hosted by Coventry University and the BBC’s College of Journalism. I’m not sure I ever really understood the question that was supposed to frame this debate: "Afghanistan: Are we embedding the truth?" (Answers on a postcard etc…) But as […]
John Simpson: BBC under threat from politicians and Rupert Murdoch
By Gouri Sharma John Simpson is in no doubt over the very real political and regulatory threats the BBC is facing and doesn’t trust either of the main UK political parties to protect the organisation. The BBC world affairs editor, who was at the Frontline Club on Wednesday night to talk about his latest book, […]
Journalists and kidnap: what happens to the freelances?
BBC journalist Alan Johnston said on his release after 114 days of captivity that he received a "psychological boost" from hearing messages of support from colleagues and well-wishers around the world on the radio he was allowed to listen to. In contrast to the sustained public campaign for his freedom, the kidnap of Canadian freelance […]
‘A sort of extreme camping trip with people trying to kill you’
Cameraman Stuart Webb describes his experience of being on patrol with the Coldstream Guards in Afghanistan. He was working for Channel 4 News with Alex Thomson. The pair came under fire as they moved along a ditch with the Guards… "As-live" Twitter reportage Alex Thomson’s report from Babaji in Helmand was broadcast on Channel […]
Journalism doesn’t pay, so what?
I never thought about making money when I set up Kigali Wire. From the beginning it has always been an experiment and it remains so. I never thought about making money when I shot my first photojournalism essay – which is in dire need of an editor’s hand… forgive me, it is my first bash […]
Twitter and the Iraq Inquiry
The other day, Dave Lee pointed out that Sky were doing something interesting with a Twitter feed during their coverage of the Iraq Inquiry. They were showing foreign correspondent Tim Marshall’s Twitter feed alongside the live coverage of the Inquiry. At this particular point in time, Sir John Scarlett was being asked about the intelligence […]
