Another thought-provoking piece of analysis

These riots reveal some unpalatable home truths
We’ve created a culture where fear and greed roam unchecked at all levels. If we don’t like it, we ought to make a change

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Hari Kunzru
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011 17.05 BST
Article history

Local men place flowers at the scene where three men were killed while protecting their area ‘standing shoulder to shoulder’ during riots in Birmingham. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters
There’s nothing like fear and hatred to sharpen the senses. The riots have shown Britain some unpalatable truths about itself, making it impossible to hold on to a certain Whiggish story about social progress which, in the teeth of the evidence, we have persisted in telling about ourselves.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/12/riots-home-truths-culture-fear-greed

posted by KS

Editorswebblog: How do journalism schools encourage diversity?

Posted by Florence Pichon on July 4, 2011 at 3:26 PM

Good journalism needs diversity. It adds perspective and enriches publications, bringing different narratives and reflecting today’s multicultural societies. The root of this issue lies in journalism schools. How are schools today working to enrich their student and faculty population?

In France, journalism schools have launched initiatives to recruit students from diverse backgrounds. According to Le Monde, the schools are often accused of only accepting “Sciences Po types”, an elite university that forms French politicians.

However, for the past two years, French journalism schools have been making strides to improve access. Unlike in the U.S., where students are selected based on their resumé, the selection process in France is heavily dependent on entry tests. In 2009, The Bondy Blog, a website that focuses on reporting the stories of working class neighbourhoods, partnered with a journalism school based in Lille to offer a free preparatory course for students on scholarships. Of the 20 students admitted, 13 did well enough on the entry tests to be accepted to one of France’s recognized journalism schools.

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(posted by PL)

Journalism Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2010 from US site ROOT

December 30, 2010 at 5:20 PM

Shirley Sherrod

1. Jobs Open Up on Internet

Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, made the startling statement in May that his company employed 4,000 journalists, 3,500 of whom were part-time or freelance.

“That’s pretty decent growth in a matter of six months,” Leena Rao wrote then on TechCrunch.com. “Of course, AOL has launched a number of content initiatives, including buying hyperlocal news site Patch and launching content machine Seed.com. Armstrong says that AOL is really ‘taking local to a local level.’ Patch is now in 53 markets in 5 states, including Connecticut and California. And it’s been reported that AOL will pour $50 million into Patch this year and plans to roll out the model to ‘hundreds’ of communities in the future.”

By December, Patch launched its 500th site. Hyperlocal coverage on the Web was a leading trending topic for the news business this year. In Washington, TBD launched a hyperlocal site with Robert Allbritton’s deep pockets, boasting a network of more than 130 local blogs and websites.

On Long Island, N.Y., Newsday, which changed owners and undertook a series of layoffs, said in August it would grow its hyperlocal coverage and hire 34 journalists. USA Today said the same month that it would cut 9 percent of its staff but shift its emphasis to mobile. Bloomberg started hiring for a niche operation, Bloomberg Government, described by the New York Times as “an information behemoth — a news aggregator, government contract database, Congressional staff directory and source for policy research and analysis all in one Web site.”

The Daily Beast, led by editor Tina Brown, got a sudden boost when its owner engineered the purchase of the financially ailing Newsweek magazine. Among the combined effort’s first hires was Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan.

How diverse these operations are was an open question. Bloomberg, AOL and the Daily Beast refuse to disclose that information, with the latter two declining to participate in the American Society of News Editors survey of online outlets. AOL Patch even issued a statement saying “We do not focus on race or ethnicity in the hiring process,” before backtracking.

In any case, there were not yet enough journalism jobs online to match the numbers being pushed out of “legacy” news operations &mash; and more often than not, freelance compensation couldn’t approximate a full-time salary.

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