The American Society of Editors (ASME) has published a list of finalists for the 2010 National Magazine Awards.

Among the 51 magazines nominated in 23 categories there are 20 with multiple nominations. New York and The New Yorker are out in front with 10 each and just behind them is National Geographic with seven. Circulation figures for the finalists range from 3,000 (the Antioch Review) to 5.6 million (National Geographic).

The awards gala will take place at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on 22 April.

See the full list of finalists at this link.

Similar Posts:

• US National Magazine Awards 2010 to award podcasts, video and mobile
• HuffPo doesn’t like being linked to… really?
• NUJ Release: Thousands of BBC journalists to strike over compulsory redundancy risk
• True/Slant: Conor Friedersdorf’s best journalism of 2009
• Guardian: Columnist fired for reviewing leaked Wolverine film sues Fox News

Reuters has published new social media guidelines in its Handbook of Journalism. As well as reminding journalists to keep the personal separate from the professional, it advises:

Can I break news via Twitter?

As with blogging within Reuters News, you should make sure that if you have hard news content that it is broken first via the wire. Don’t scoop the wire. NB this does not apply if you are retweeting; (re-publishing) someone else’s scoop.

Corrections

If a correction is required, a new tweet that begins “CORRECTION:…” should be published.

Full post at this link…

Similar Posts:

• 12 hours worth of radio interview tips from @NewsLeader
• Editor&Publisher: WaPo and Bloomberg partner for global news wire
• Mashable: Reuters frees content with new API
• Argus apologises to BBC producer – a note on media transparency
• Currybet.net: Phil Spector Twitter hoax proof of ‘online honesty gap’ between bloggers and newspapers

While I can’t be at SXSW in-person this year, I’m sending a proxy.  Literally.

If you are headed to Austin, allow me to introduce you to … “Cowboy Todd.”

Inspired and designed by my friend David Alston and his crew at Radian6, this 6–foot tall cut-out will be making the rounds of the party circuit, “Flat Stanley”-style.

David’s committed to taking Cowboy Todd to the AllHat2 event, Jason Falls promises to have Cowboy Todd serve you a funnel cake at his Funnel Cake Fandango, and my pals Aaron Strout, C.C. Chapman, Richard Binhammer, and Kyle Flaherty have committed to serve as Cardboard Cowboy wranglers, to make sure the Big Guy gets to a few other events.

Wanna get involved in the fun?

If you spot Cowboy Todd in Austin, be sure to check-in with him via Foursquare, or create a new spot for the big guy on Gowalla.

Take a photo with him and we’ll post the best entries to PR-Squared and the SHIFT Facebook Fanpage.  If you’ve got the funniest picture submission, I’ll draft a guest blog post for ya (or something similar).

Film yourself having a (drunken) conversation with Cowboy Todd, and we’ll give $1,000 to your favorite charity if you took the best/funniest video.

Tweet about #CowboyTodd and we’ll randomly select 5 winners to receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card. (But special consideration will be given if you tweet some funny one-liners, e.g., “Top 10 Things Cowboy Todd Didn’t Say at SXSW.”)

I can’t be there, but I sure hope Cowboy Todd has a blast.

I promise you — the guy’s no pushover.  He’ll drink you all under the table.

Paul Martin, the British broadcast journalist detained in the Gaza strip on charges of espionage, has been released by Hamas, the BBC reports today.

Hamas, which runs the enclave, has not filed any charge against him in court but said it was deporting him because it “believed him to be guilty”.

Full story at this link…

Similar Posts:

• IFJ / NUJ call for release of detained British journalist in Gaza
• British journalist rescued from Taliban but interpreter died; reports suggest British soldier also killed
• BBC and Sky News abstain from DEC Gaza appeal; Al Jazeera and Number 10 site show support
• BBC News: Nigerian news blogger detained by security services
• CNN Money: Sun-Times Media files for Chapter 11

Despite Mr Justice Eady’s little quips during his speech (about telling footballers apart in soft lighting, for example), the colour from last night’s speech at City University London came in the questions afterwards.

• Journalism.co.uk report at this link
• Speech in full at this link
• Some video on YouTube by Conrad Quilty-Harper

Heather Brooke proudly announced herself as a freedom of information campaigner and British-American. Whilst Eady professed himself an advocate of freedom of speech, his feelings about Americans had been less favourable – we often overlook the fact that we are not part of the United States, he jibed at one point.

When Eady finally located Brooke (“Sorry, the reason I was looking round the room was because I didn’t recognise you compared to the person who portrayed you on television”) he tackled her questions: why are super-injunctions not recorded publicly and what are the total libel costs that go through his court each year?

“Super-injunctions are something of an artificial construct, blown up by the media recently. I’d never heard the term till it was mentioned till a few months ago.

“I’m not conscious that I’ve ever granted one, though it’s conceivable I might have done.”

They were, on the whole, he claimed, used in celebrity blackmail cases to ensure the threatening party didn’t find out the nature of the injunction and run off to the newspapers.

“The trouble is when a judge grants an anonymous injunction, it’s recorded anonymously and you can’t find out the details”

The only thing to be done, he said, is to invite judges over a period of time to list the number of the super injunctions they’ve granted, if they do.

“One couldn’t break into the confidentiality of a particular case. I think you’d find it’s a tiny number. I might have done one or two in the past.”

On costs, he was equally unenlightening: solicitors come up with a fee he said, based on the number of hours. “Sometimes one suspects they may be over charging in the sense that more hours are spent handling documents than is strictly necessary, but it’s very difficult to establish that’s the case.”

While Eady had been to one or two training sessions with cost judges on keeping costs down, not much light had been thrown on the issue, he said. He had no statistics to offer: “Costs are huge, I’m sure of that”.

Scientific debate
On Simon Singh’s ongoing case, in which Eady ruled that Singh’s comments about the British Chiropractic Association were fact not comment (currently awaiting a Court of Appeal decision) he would not be drawn, following a question by Connie St Louis, who runs City University London’s new science journalism course.

“I don’t want to discuss a particular case. But the basic principle is pretty clear, in terms of scientific discussion and research, that there should be completely free and uninhibited communication between experts in the field and indeed the general public at large,” said Eady.

“The question arises whether or not, in a particular set of of circumstances, whether the boundary between comment and fact has been overstepped. That’s a very central issue in that case. I don’t want to get drawn into that because I’ve expressed my view in that case.”

“I don’t think there’s great danger for scientific investigation. Everyone accepts, I think, that freedom of communication is vital in that context.”

On libel tourism, he was equally unconcerned, when asked a question by journalist James Ball.

“I would be interested to see the research on libel tourism, if there is any, because sitting where I do I don’t see an awful lot of it.

“By libel tourism, I think you mean coming to this country with no connection to it, who have been libelled in it.”

If there is genuinely no connection between the claimant and the UK, then there is a mechanism to strike out the case, he said.

The facts are often exaggerated, he said, presumably in reference to the press accounts.

“Sometimes it’s said the person has no connection to this country, but in fact the person has strong business connections (….) As our law stands here, they’re entitled to sue in this country.”

No-one in the audience took up the Independent’s challenge to ask him about future plans, despite several dares via the Twitter conversation (which you can see at this link).

Similar Posts:

• Simon Singh goes to Court of Appeal
• Mr Justice Eady speech in full
• High Court does not collect statistics on ’super injunctions’
• Telegraph.co.uk: It’s too late for me, but libel laws must change, says Singh
• Simon Singh update: senior judge baffled by ‘artificiality’ of case

#followjourn: Matthew Wall

Who? Wall a freelance journalist, as well as author of several books and published poet. Wall has worked on a freelance basis for the Times, Sky Money and Interactive Investor, among others.

Where? He has a comprehensive website at www.matthewwall.typepad.com and a LinkedIn page.

Contact? Follow Matthew Wall on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthew_wall.

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to judith or laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

Similar Posts:

• #FollowJourn: @seanhargrave/freelance journalist
• #FollowJourn: @adamoxford/freelancer
• #FollowJourn: @olivershah/freelance journalist
• #FollowJourn: @ruthofford/music journalist
• #FollowJourn: @rachcolling/freelancer

To the surprise of some, it was Mr Justice Eady who took the platform for a speech on freedom of expression in the context of human rights law last night, to mark the launch of City University London’s new centre for Law, Justice and Journalism.

• Read Journalism.co.uk’s report from the evening at this link

The high court judge is known for his judgements that led to big media payouts to Max Mosley, Madonna and Tiger Woods for breaches of privacy, and for the many libel cases over which he has presided. In a speech in 2008, the Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre said that Eady was bringing in a “privacy law by the back door.”

We have uploaded Eady’s speech in full, below:

Justice Eady Speech – City University London – March 2010

Similar Posts:

• Poll: Is Paul Dacre right to criticise Justice Eady’s use of the privacy law?
• Simon Singh goes to Court of Appeal
• Jack Straw proposing ‘wholesale reform’ of UK libel law
• The Register: Mosley judge dismisses forum libel complaints
• More from Dacre: The Daily Mail editor on Max Mosley and ‘Flat Earth News’

Trinity Mirror has made an out-of-court settlement with the British National Party after a breach of copyright in an article published last November.

The piece included a picture of BNP West Wales party organiser Roger Phillips, taken by a party official, which the BNP said was taken from Facebook without permission.

Full story at this link…

Similar Posts:

• Update on cuts at Trinity Mirror’s Media Wales – 15 (.2) jobs at risk
• 13.2 jobs could go at Trinity Mirror’s Media Wales; NUJ members to hold strike ballot
• UK Future of News gets local
• Trinity Mirror update: One weekly could be rescued at TM North West and Wales, while exec share row rumbles on
• Guardian.co.uk: Handling reader responses in a ‘digital age’

This weeks Meet the Media interview is with freelance journalist Tim Anderson who writes for plethora of titles including One of my favourite answers he gives is about contacting a journalist. Tim points out that it is a journalists job to be interesting so before any PR clicks on the send button or dials a telephone [...]

Multimedia: When it comes to building multimedia packages, the FT is a leader in its field. You can find them all grouped at this link. Tipster: Judith Townend. To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link - we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Newsrooms that once functioned under a cloud of cigarette smoke now work in a cloud computing environment. Writers who once tucked a reporter’s notebook in their back pocket now wield a digital voice recorder or a Flip camcorder. Editors who once red-lined copy and haggled over how headlines matched the lead art now stress over web analytics and keyword selection.

eMedia Vitals’ Rob O’Regan, who has close to 30 years experience as a journalist, has created a chronology of the journalism roles he has undertaken, the skills developed, the performance indicators and the tools required – from 1982-3 as a cub reporter, armed with a reporter’s notebook and an ashtray through his time as a news editor in 1994-6, where the newsroom’s Toshiba T1000 notebook had to be signed out for road trips.

Full post at this link…

Similar Posts:

• Slewfootsnop: What are employers advertising for in journalism job ads?
• Medill running course for ‘enterprising’ working journalists
• Imagine you’re a journalist – you can for just £19.99
• Visualisations for investigations: How a Swedish local paper used Tagul
• MediaGuardian: ‘Technology journalists are the ones to watch’

To mark its recent redesign and return as a monthly publication, the Telegraph has a slideshow of past covers and pages from the British Journal of Photography.

Full slideshow at this link…

Similar Posts:

• British Journal of Photography relaunches as monthly mag
• Photography Is Not-A-Crime.com: images from the fourth plinth
• BJP: Photographers sue Met Police for treatment at Greek embassy protests
• Fifth International Photography Award open for entries
• Heffer to take sabbatical from Telegraph

Hal Varian, Chief Economist for Google, says, “online news reading is predominately a labor time activity while offline news reading is primarily a leisure time activity. One of the big challenges facing the news industry is increasing involvement with the news during leisure hours, when readers have more time to look at both news content and ads.”

“In my view, the best thing that newspapers can do now is experiment, experiment, experiment. There are huge cost savings associated with online news. Roughly 50% of the cost of producing a physical newspaper is in printing and distribution, with only about 15% of total costs being editorial. Newspapers could save a lot of money if the primary access to news was via the internet.
“New tablet computers like the Kindle, iPad, and Android devices may encourage people to read online news at home in the comfort of their easy chairs. At Google, we certainly don’t think we have all the solutions, but we are definitely keen on working with the news industry to help it attract bigger audiences and generate more ad revenue. Experiments like Fast Flip, Living Stories and Starred Stories may help pull together the at-work and at-home access to the news. Online news access on handheld device like cell phones and tablets is likely to be quite different from traditional newspapers reading, with much more multimedia content, interactivity and reader involvement. The transition to a fully online news will be difficult, but there’s a good chance that we will emerge with a significantly more compelling user experience.

Amnesty International accuses Azerbaijan government of 'stifling dissent'

High Court judge launches new Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism at City University London

Piece referring to Facebook has been edited, but social network is not satisfied with corrections

Earlier this week Reuters’ global editor Greg Beitchman told an industry debate on the future of video that the agency wants to make more of its raw film footage available to clients.

Speaking to Beet.tv in the video below, Beitchman explains how Reuters used social media, particularly Twitter, to source raw video footage from Iran during its coverage of the post-election protests:

Similar Posts:

• Online video: Reuters wants to offer more raw video to clients
• NYTimes: ‘Bent’ rules for journalism in Iran coverage
• Frontline Club: Links for Iran election protest media coverage
• How Demotix’s contributors have covered Iran election protests
• #aop3c: Reuters’ Project Insider: ‘narrowcasting’ in beta

I dove into my “Big Thinking” folder recently and emerged with a slide from the “Social Media Trends for 2010” deck created by Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group, discussing organizational models for corporate adoption of Social Media.

Who is in control of this Social Media stuff?  What are the best practices?

These questions come up a lot, particularly amongst large brands.

Imagine: you have THOUSANDS of employees, who are not asking for your so-called permission to hang out on Facebook or Twitter; who may be blogging (with or without full transparency); who are likely finding and commenting (with or without full transparency) on industry blogs that cover your business. The situation could escalate out of control pretty quickly, especially in times of crisis.

Jeremiah’s slide points to the three major options that large corporations must consider re: Social Media adoption and planning.

The distributed model is the most compelling because it’s the least controlled; it’s a mess, a free-for-all.  Everyone in the company gets to chart their own path.  Join Twitter – or not.  Join Facebook – or not.  Start a blog – or not.  It’s the model that most companies fear the most – it is hard to monitor or contain.  Yet its very looseness gives it power.  Untethered, the company’s overachievers can rise to the top; they can become authoritative “personal brands” in the industry, and could help the business in surprising ways.  Two types of companies adopt this distributed approach: companies that fail to plan (and wind up hoping for the best) and, companies willing to put inordinate amounts of trust in their employees (see: Zappos).

The centralized model is the “default setting” for most large companies.  Accustomed to CONTROL, this approach feels proper and minimizes surprises.  There’s one neck to choke when things go awry.  However, the rigidity of this model ignores the power of Social Media – to expose the company’s talented folks, at all levels, to various niches in which they might be impactful.  The centralized approach is superb for Brand Management and Customer Service but doesn’t answer the question about what everyone else in the company wants to do re: Social Media!  “Are you saying that because I’m not part of your Social Media team, I can’t tweet?” It begs for end-runs from within the company.

Clearly the coordinated model in Jeremiah’s slide is the one to espouse.  It’s beauty is that it is simple, reasonable and effective.  Guidelines are set (simple).  Monitoring and reporting mechanisms are deployed (reasonable).  Everyone gets to play, but knows the rules-of-the-road (which will evolve as new lessons are learned), and also knows that there are consequences for derailing the company’s brand online (effective).

But, as Jeremiah’s slide rightly notes, the effectiveness of this approach can take more time.

The coordinated policies might allow for great public-facing successes in Customer Service, for example, but might not do as good a job showcasing the talents of employees in other divisions.  The Social Media zealot working in a company with a “distributed” (free-for-all) approach will be self-motivated to make a mark; they’ll be fueled by ego to get noticed — and to make an impact before anyone in “Corporate” figures out that they need to set guidelines.  That same employee, working within the regulations set in a “coordinated” model, might find that spadework to be slower going.

What approach appeals the most to you?  What model does your current employer use (wittingly or not)?  Do you see that situation changing?

Last Sunday, writer and author Zoe Margolis was shocked to discover that the headline on her own opinion piece about the portrayal of women in the media for the Independent on Sunday, wrongly described her as a prostitute.

The headline was changed for later editions of the paper. An online version of the headline has now been changed to ‘I’m a good-time girl who became an agony aunt’, with the same article. The original version remained live on the mobile site for some time, before being removed.

Margolis now intends to pursue legal action, her spokesperson confirmed to Journalism.co.uk.

“Zoe has never worked in the sex industry and has worked hard to establish her writing as something distinct to it.”

Margolis said: “I’m absolutely distraught by this damage to my reputation both professionally and personally. Unfortunately this situation just shows how much work still needs to be done to challenge the sexism of the media in their conflation of female sexual desire with the sex industry.”

Margolis, keeps a successful blog about her sex life, originally anonymously as Abby Lee, and then under her real name once she was exposed by the Sunday Times in 2006. Her second book was published this week.

Her spokesperson said that the incident had revealed an “undercurrent of sexism”. It illustrated the very point that Margolis was trying to make, she said: “that if you are a woman, writing about sex openly, it is very likely you will be labelled with negative terminology”.

“Zoe believes women are chastised or labelled for expressing their sexual desires and that this needs to be opposed.”

Twitter users following Margolis on Sunday were shocked by the headline, particularly ahead of a week used to mark women’s rights, International Women’s Day (IWD).

“The eve of IWD & @girlonetrack is subject of vile SIndy h/lines for a positive piece on writing on sexuality & feminism,” tweeted @emmagillan.

The Independent on Sunday did not wish to comment at this stage.

Similar Posts:

• #IWD: Sarah Booker – ‘Journalism is a profession where anyone can prove themselves’
• #IWD: Chie Elliott – ‘Sidelining of TV’s older women could be reflective of society’s warped views’
• Women don’t fare too well on the power league lists
• Muslimah Media Watch: ‘Score’ for BBC with football story
• Calling journalists to blog on International Women’s Day (Monday 8 March)

Al Jazeera English’s Listening Post has an excellent film about the new Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) proposal, which, if successful, could make Iceland an investigative journalism haven.

• Read more about IMMI here: http://immi.is/?l=en: “The goal of the IMMI proposal is to task the government with finding ways to strengthen freedom of expression around world and in Iceland, as well as providing strong protections for sources and whistleblowers. To this end the legal environment should be explored in such a way that the goals can be defined, and changes to law or new law proposals can be prepared. The legal environments of other countries should be considered, with the purpose of assembling the best laws to make Iceland a leader of freedoms of expression and information.”

• Wikileaks.org, which helped draft the law, also has more information here (its site currently has restricted content, as it prepares for relaunch and seeks more funds).

In the Listening Post film, which also features Index on Censorship news editor Padraig Reidy, Wikileaks’ editor Julian Assange explains IMMI’s limits as well as its potential: “It’s important to remember that the IMMI appears to be a good bullet, but it’s not a magic bullet, so there will be many cases where there is brutal suppression of the press that IMMI doesn’t have substantial effect on.”

IMMI’s proponents hope new legislation will help change tough libel laws around the world, with a “ripple effect” in the EU and beyond.

Similar Posts:

• BBC News: Wikileaks and Icelandic MPs propose ‘haven’ for investigative journalism
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Iceland’s journalism haven proposal passes first stage
• Computer World: WikiLeaks plans to make leaking easier with new upload system
• MPs’ expenses data will be officially released Thursday but how much will be edited out?
• The draft Terrorism Act 2000 guidance: what’s happening?