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Ted Blog
Further reading on ideas worth spreading. The TED Blog shares interesting news about TED, TED Talks video, the TED Prize and more.
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Opinion: The Arab Spring Started in Iraq
This is a controversial oped arguing that the Arab Spring began in Iraq.
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“Saddam Hussein’s fall put the entire Arab authoritarian system under scrutiny,” writes Kanan Makiya. “The Arab political psyche began to change as well. The legitimating ideas of post-1967 Arab politics — pan-Arabism, armed struggle, anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism — ideas that undergirded the regimes in both Iraq and Syria, were rubbing up against the realities of life under Mr. Hussein.” -
Journalism of the future should be less concerned with the present
The challenge of journalism today argues John Lloyd is simply this:
“There are publications and broadcasts and news agencies (such as this one) that are wedded to objective reporting, investigation and rational analysis, but they are in the minority, and a lot of them are finding it hard to make a living these days.”
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Read Any Good Web Sites Lately? Book Lovers Talk Online
It’s about time. Book lovers recommend, suggest, discuss and talk about books online. Here’s a website attempting to do just that.
“The social media site goodreads.com is exploding in popularity as a platform for finding and sharing and, yes, marketing books.”
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“The Shooter”
With the rise of the popular movie Dark Zero Thirty, this is a great feature about the shooter who killed Osama Bin Laden.
“The man who shot and killed Osama bin Laden sat in a wicker chair in my backyard, wondering how he was going to feed his wife and kids or pay for their medical care.”
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TEN MOST POPULAR JOURNALISM BLOGGERS IN AMERICA?
Some of the popular journalism bloggers in America but there is a UK version as well. A great resource for journalists and those looking for information on the profession as well.
“I’ve grabbed the baton and produced a chart of the top ten American journo-bloggers, based on combined subscriptions via Google Reader and Bloglines”
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How Many Teachers Use Technology in the Classroom?
Great infograph on how the use of technology has given us the opportunity to do so much more in the classrooms.
“According to a press release, close to 74% of all teachers surveyed said they use digital resources — tablets, computers — to expand and reinforce on content in their classrooms. Among the other highlights: 69% of those surveyed said educational technology helps them “do much more than ever before” for their students, with the most commonly used resources being online lesson plans, interactive web games and online articles.”
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Journalists are heroes in latest TV dramas
Journalists are usually vilified by some, but more recently Journalists have been playing the heroes in the latest TV dramas, including one of my favorite show “The Newsroom”. But with budget problems and some print newspapers closing down, is this at odds with what we are seeing on TV?
“…Yet if Hollywood still sees journalists as viable heroes, this image-boosting vote of confidence comes as actual jobs have disappeared faster than guest stars in many of these programs. Moreover, the profession’s esteem in the public’s eyes remains under siege.”
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GRAY MATTER: Learning From Failure
People love to read only about success stories it seems. NGO’s, institutions, schools and others always highlight success but what isn’t it worth learning from failures? Since many success stories most probably faced failure somewhere along the road. And this is what this article speaks about.
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9 Rules for Success by British Novelist Amelia E. Barr
The secret of success and tips for writers by British novelist Amelia Barr. She speaks of inspiration, work ethics and more. Brain Pickings happens to be one of my favorite websites because it’s creative and fresh. It’s content is always fun to read.
“It was after at least forty-five years of conscious labor that I reached the object of my hope. Many a time my head failed me, my hands failed me, my feet failed me, but, thank God, my heart never failed me.”
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Mideast women beat men in education, lose out at work
This is an interesting development that I have observed over the years. During the past decade, there was so much focus on the importance of education for women but not enough on work after graduation. This article lays out important statistics and graphs on the reality of women employment in the Middle East.
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Major papers’ longform meltdown
Despite the creation of an App that lets you read all the long form stories from various news and magazine sources, this article in the Columbia Journalism Review talks about the decline of long form articles in the most prominent newspapers.
“When it comes to stories longer than 3,000 words, the three papers showed even sharper declines. The WSJ’s total is down 70 percent to 25 stories, from 87 a decade ago, and the LA Times down fully 90 percent to 34 from 368. The New York Times’s record was more mixed. It published 25 percent fewer stories over 2,000 words from a decade ago, but 32 percent more stories over 3,000 words.”
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What to See in 2013
Winter is a great time to visit museums – this is a list of countries and museums around the world. “This time of year, museums around the world herald their major exhibitions.”
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A Writer Revisits the Ancient Laptop He Used in College
This is a light story on our relationship with our laptops and writing.
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“Laptop is dusty these days. His shell is slightly scratched. But he’s still bright on the inside—even polished—thanks to the years of oiling by fingertips and palms. He bears the marks of his experience. The A, S, E, D, C, O, L, N, and M keys are worn down to a point of near-illegibility. There’s evidence of lots of activity on the BACKSPACE key—though, having just sifted through a bunch of writing from those years, I think maybe not quite enough. Crumbs were, and continue to be, a problem.” -
50 blogs by journalists, for journalists
This is a great list of blogs by Journalists who are blogging and also journalism academics. This list includes 50 blogs, including journalists who share some tips and expertise. This is a treasure.
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“We invited people to nominate blogs via Twitter and received a good number of responses, many of which we have included here.” -
Jihadists’ Surge in North Africa Reveals Grim Side of Arab Spring
A great article by Robert Worth on the dangers and consequences of events taking place in North Africa. It is indicative that even countries like Mali have become havens for Jihadists and their reach is wide as crossing borders and chaos increases.
“The crisis in Mali is not likely to end soon, with the militants ensconcing themselves among local people and digging fortifications. It could also test the fragile new governments of Libya and its neighbors, in a region where any Western military intervention arouses bitter colonial memories and provides a rallying cry for Islamists.”
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Fresh Air: Ben Affleck & Dustin Hoffman
Ben Affleck is interviewed by Fresh Air’s host Terry Gross. The movie has won awards at the Golden Globes. “The film, which Affleck produced and in which he also stars, is the mostly true story of the CIA operative who helmed the rescue of six U.S. diplomats who managed to escape at the outset of the 1979 Iran crisis that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran. Affleck, a Middle Eastern studies major in college, was a child when the crisis happened and does not remember the news coverage.”
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Fair Observer
Fair Observer is a website that offers analysis on the Arab Spring, especially on the developments in Egypt. The website is easy to navigate and you can search for analysis by region or topic.
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Tunisia: ‘Did We Make the Revolution For This?
The New York Review for Books has been publishing some great features on the Arab Spring and this is the most recent one on Tunisia. Get a glimpse into what is taking place there and the larger consequences for the region. Have we stopped to assess the goals of the revolution that all began in Tunisia?
“What were those goals? To move swiftly and in orderly fashion from fifty-five years of homespun dictatorship (following on from four and a half centuries of Ottoman and French colonization) to a popular form of government. To unite Islamists of various stripes, left-wing trade unionists, economic and social liberals, and French-style secularists of the headscarf-banning variety—all without coercion. To correct the historic economic imbalance between the prosperous littoral and the neglected interior. And finally, to find an accommodation between two Tunisian cultures: the first, bucolic, heir to the Mediterranean civilizations whose amphorae litter the country’s archaeological sites; the second, harking to Arabia and Islam—for Tunisia boasts one the oldest places of worship in the Muslim world, the Mosque of Uqba in the holy city of Kairouan, as well as a thriving hard-line Islamic revivalist movement.”
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Branded a Betrayer for Embracing Syria’s Rebels
This is a great profile story by NEIL MacFARQUHAR. It not only captures the character in the story but it’s one of those pieces that take you to the place as well.
“Ms. Yazbek, 42, collapsed, only to be yanked to her feet to continue the butchery tour, which competes for the most harrowing day detailed in the book, a rare early chronicle of the revolution from inside.”
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Amos Oz, The Art of Fiction No. 148
This is an interview with liberal Israeli writer Amos Oz. I enjoyed reading the answer to “Does it ever snow in the desert?” Take a moment to also read his answer on finding time to work on journalism as well.
“I write articles not because I’m asked to, but because I’m filled with rage. I feel I have to tell my government what to do and, sometimes, where to go. Not that they listen. Then I drop everything and write an essay, which is always published here first, then picked up by The New York Times, or England’s Guardian or another publication. You see, I’m not a political analyst or commentator. I write from a sense of injustice and my revolt against it. But I can write an article only when I agree with myself one hundred percent, which is not my normal condition—normally I’m in partial disagreement with myself and can identify with three or five different views and different feelings about the same issue.”
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How to edit your story for accuracy
12/10/12
by Rana F. SweisAs a reporter, you must gather information and interview sources quickly, then explain what you’ve learned concisely and clearly. Once that’s done, it’s tempting to ship the story to your editor or hit “publish” on your blog.
Resist that temptation. You need to do one more thing to ensure your story contains only accurate, unbiased and verified information: edit your story line by line.
Investigative reporter Nils Hanson shared his advice for line-by-line editing at the recent Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) conference in Cairo. More than 200 journalists and academics, mainly from the Middle East, attended the conference, which included training sessions and networking opportunities with international investigative reporters and trainers.
Hanson, who reports for the popular Swedish TV news station SVT, and is a member of ARIJ’s board, offered these tips for editing for accuracy:
Have your address book and notes handy
Make sure your list of sources and their contact information, as well as notes from your interviews, are close at hand. There may be facts you will need to double-check as you edit.
Keep an open mind
“Are you hit by tunnel vision? That’s the big trap,” Hanson said. Tunnel vision is the tendency to hold on to a certain belief even when evidence points elsewhere. Reporters sometimes do this without realizing it, Hanson said, so stay open-minded when reporting and editing your story.
“Listen to the skeptical, examine the expert and question the victim,” Hanson said. Think of the recent BBC scandal, in which an alleged sex-abuse victim admitted to wrongly accusing a former politician of attacking him. “Can victims prove their allegations?”
Examine each fact
Ask yourself if there is essential information missing and if all assertions are grounded in fact. Mark each fact, name, figure and quote in your story, and then verify it. “Watch out for overstatements, such as ‘everybody says’ or [that] they haven’t done anything,” Hanson said.
Verify all data, including statistics. “Even data presented by interviewees must be verified,” he says.
Evaluate your sources and decide if you need more interviews
Do your sources make conclusions that others might criticize? Point that out.
Reporters need to make sure they talk with many people, including those they don’t like or who don’t like them. They should also include people who are controversial or who may seem a bit odd—or just wrong—to the reporter.
“Did the people criticized in your story have a chance to reply to all serious criticism aimed against them?” Hanson asked.
“Look at the overall picture and check if it is unbiased or if it is written in an accusatory tone,” he explained. “Who or what could give a different picture?”
Protect sources and check copyrights
Make certain that a source you have promised not to identify will not appear in published documents or in photos or video. Also examine graphics and copyrights, including logos and statistics revealed in charts or graphs.
Check your gut
After examining your report line by line, Hanson says to ask yourself two final questions. First, ask yourself, “Are you troubled by anything?” If the answer is affirmative, be honest with yourself and your editor about what that is.
Finally, ask yourself, “What might generate criticism?” Don’t automatically take those parts out. Instead, address those critiques in your story.
If you follow these steps, you’ll be much less likely to need to issue a correction—or to regret publishing the story at all.
Rana F. Sweis is a freelance journalist and media researcher. She writes mainly about political reform, refugees and social issues in the Middle East. She is also the lead researcher in Jordan for the Open Society Institute-sponsored Mapping Digital Media Study. You can visit her website and follow her on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of Rogue Sun Media, used with a CC-license
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Reporters, like diplomats, can’t work in a fortress.
This is an excellent oped in the New York Times on the importance of reporting from the field and ‘being there’. To go where the story is. Sounds simple but as violence, chaos and kidnappings become increasingly common in places where reporters must go, the risks are high. The writer argues that reporters have to be there and working from fortresses can come at a high price.
“the occasional price of a noble but risky profession” — struck rather close to home. It is a calculus familiar to the tribe of foreign correspondents who work, as Bobby Worth often does, in places that can blow up in your face. If diplomats are withdrawing behind blast walls and armed escorts, and if that is costing us some useful understanding of the world, is the same thing happening to those who cover the news, and with what consequences?
“Like the truly committed diplomat, the truly committed foreign correspondent is something of an endangered species. News organizations began their retreat from the world long ago, driven by economics and a wrongheaded belief that Americans don’t care that much about foreign news. The American Journalism Review, which began charting the decline of foreign reporting in 1998 (that first article was entitled “Goodbye, World”), reported two years ago that 18 American newspapers and two entire newspaper chains had closed every one of their overseas bureaus. Other news outlets, including most TV networks, have downsized or abandoned full-time bureaus in favor of reporters or anchors who parachute in when there’s a crisis. They give us spurts of coverage when an Arab Spring breaks out or Hamas fires rockets into Israel, but much less of the ongoing attention that would equip us to see crises coming and understand them when they erupt.”
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New Adventures in the Newspaper Industry
An article in The Economist finally delivers positive news about the newspaper industry after several years of terrible news. The Newspaper industry has taken a real fall the past few years and the process of digitization has been tough for many – those who survived were the innovators. Many didn’t make it.
“Things have started to look a bit less grim, particularly in America. Revenues from advertising are still falling, but those from circulation have at last started to stabilise. At some papers, such as the New York Times, circulation revenues this year are forecast to offset the decline in advertising for the first time in at least five years.”
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The Arab Awakening, By Tariq Ramadan
This article reviews Tariq Ramadan’s book on the Arab Spring. Was the Arab Spring planned or staged? Was it a revolt by the people with no plan the day after?
“Half of this slim volume is spent examining whether the uprisings were staged or spontaneous. Ramadan counsels against both the naive view that outside powers are passive observers of events, and the contrary belief that Arab revolutionaries have been mere pawns in the hands of cunning foreign players. Certainly the US and its allies helped to guide events by collaborating with the military hierarchies which removed presidents in Tunisia and Egypt, and by full-scale intervention in Libya – for a variety of obvious reasons. An agreement signed by Libya’s NTC last year, for instance, guaranteed France 3 per cent of future oil exports.”
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