It’s not just what you print that makes you an authoritative and trusted source for news, but what you don’t print.
Unnamed Reuters reporter mentioned in this Guardian piece: http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/29/cyberwar-spun-shoddy-journalism

Data journalism

I’m a big fan of data journalism, and one of the world’s best practitioners is The Guardian newspaper. Here’s a link to all their datasets, updated daily and open for users to access.

Rosa Parks, the quiet revolutionary

This is a good audio documentary by the BBC on Rosa Parks on the centenary of her birth. It’s a biography of her, what she did what she did, and includes some audio interviews she did in Florida that have never been broadcast before. Worth a listen.

compoundliving: Iranian photographer Ebrahim Noroozi’s portraits, about the life of a woman and 3-year-old daughter after her husband threw acid on their faces in the middle of the night, demands to be seen. The story won 1st in the 2013 stories category at the World Press Photo.  This still happens. (via World Press Photo)

compoundliving:

Iranian photographer Ebrahim Noroozi’s portraits, about the life of a woman and 3-year-old daughter after her husband threw acid on their faces in the middle of the night, demands to be seen. The story won 1st in the 2013 stories category at the World Press Photo. 

This still happens.

(via World Press Photo)

Responsible journalism has to put things in perspective, and understand what they’re writing rather than just taking some quotes to fill stories. Partially, I think that the economics of the news business has taken away some of the older, more experienced reporters and editors.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in an interview with Charlie Rose aired on PBS stations Thursday evening.

(Mayor Bloomberg founded Bloomberg L.P., which operates —among other things — Bloomberg Television, where the program Charlie Rose is filmed)

Learning to code: 101 for journalists

This is a great place to start learning how to code. It’s worth a try and perhaps it’ll also give you the opportunity create stuff that you think would be useful for yourself as a journalist, as well as for your readers and viewers. Check out the comments section on the page too. Some good advice there.

I really enjoyed this animated video of what drives us as humans. The animation was an excellent, accessible way to explain the theories and experiments, and it’s very much worth checking out the other animations in this series.

This series of photographs by Huang Qingjun is just brilliant. They depict all the worldly possessions that families in rural China have. Many have very little — a stark contrast to their fellow citizens in the affluent eastern coastal cities. Yet at the same time, many, such as the Inner Mongolian family shown above, also have a fair range of digital gadgets, from satellite dishes to other appliances.  You can view more of the photograhs here, and also read a good interview with Huang, plus more pics, here.

This series of photographs by Huang Qingjun is just brilliant. They depict all the worldly possessions that families in rural China have. Many have very little — a stark contrast to their fellow citizens in the affluent eastern coastal cities. Yet at the same time, many, such as the Inner Mongolian family shown above, also have a fair range of digital gadgets, from satellite dishes to other appliances. 

You can view more of the photograhs here, and also read a good interview with Huang, plus more pics, here.

'Let's celebrate heroines before they become victims'

A good opinion piece in The Guardian by Jenny Kleeman about how we need to start celebrating and honouring women when they are alive. As she writes about the accolades for Marie Colvin and Malala Yousafzai:

“While it’s right that these two incredibly tenacious people are once again being honoured, it’s a shame that brave women seem only to be celebrated once they have become victims. There are many bold female reporters and human rights activists around the world who are ignored by the media and public until something goes wrong. We prefer to romanticise victims rather than pay tribute to those who survive the most hostile environments unscathed.”

(link via @malonebarry)

I’ve just started listening to a BBC podcast documentary series “A History of the World in 100 Objects” and I am hooked. The documentary, which I believe was first broadcast in 2010, takes 100 objects in the British Museum and uses them to tell the history of civilisations, of how communities started to develop all those millennia ago and why. There’s a companion website that allows you to download the podcasts, read the transcripts, find out more about each object and much much more. I think the whole series is a brilliant and fun way to get people learning and wanting to learn more about history and archaeology without feeling overwhelmed. (I’ve just finished listening to the 13th object, the Indus Valley Seal, which in featured in the image above. Can you decipher what the letterings mean?)

I’ve just started listening to a BBC podcast documentary series “A History of the World in 100 Objects” and I am hooked. The documentary, which I believe was first broadcast in 2010, takes 100 objects in the British Museum and uses them to tell the history of civilisations, of how communities started to develop all those millennia ago and why.

There’s a companion website that allows you to download the podcasts, read the transcripts, find out more about each object and much much more. I think the whole series is a brilliant and fun way to get people learning and wanting to learn more about history and archaeology without feeling overwhelmed.

(I’ve just finished listening to the 13th object, the Indus Valley Seal, which in featured in the image above. Can you decipher what the letterings mean?)