[events]
EVENTS FUTURE HUMAN
WASHINGTON POST
THE ORIGIN of hacking culture in America formed part of a talk on data journalism at City University by Jack Roberts, director of Good Publishing. The event on 24 February, called ‘Data Journalism: How Hacker Culture is Transforming the Way that Information is Made Public’, highlighted the influence of whistle-blowing platforms such as WikiLeaks. Roberts said: “Data journalism is the most interesting and exciting form of news journalism possibly for 100 years. It’s completely transforming the way that the general public receive information and is a fantastic opportunity for journalists to make themselves useful to the wider community, because this information needs to be analysed, contextualized and vetted.”
LEONARD Downie Jr, publisher and ex-editor (1991-2008) of The Washington Post came to City for the James Cameron Memorial Award and Lecture, on 22 September 2010. He paid tribute to Michela Wong, who won this year’s award for her reports on post-Cold War Africa, before delivering a 40 minute lecture that focused on the fate of accountability journalism
Jack Roberts
FINANCE REPORT IN HIS inaugural speech, Professor Steve Schifferes discussed the challenges faced by financial reporters in the wake of the economic crisis. The speech, held on 17 February, marked the former BBC economic correspondent’s appointment as director of the financial journalism MA. Professor Schifferes charted the history 0
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XCITY
PAUL BRADSHAW DATA expert Professor Paul Bradshaw’s inaugural lecture at City dealt with journalists’ confusion between technology and content. Bradshaw explained how technology had changed the linear nature of news production, and said that some journalists had confused the new mediums used to deliver content for the content itself. He addressed cyber-cynics who ask ‘is blogging journalism?’ and stressed that content should not be separated from the technology but that the two should be used together to present the content in the most effective way. Bradshaw ended the 3 March lecture, called ‘Is Ice Cream Strawberry? Journalism’s invisible history and conflicted future’, with an instruction to the assembled students and journalists to “take the responsibility and make journalism better”. He said: “Technology will not change journalism – you will.”
in America as the “tsunami of economic, technological and social change washes over news media”. He put forward the argument that: “American society must now take some collective responsibility for supporting news reporting in this new environment, as it has traditionally for education, health care, scientific advancement and culture.”
of economic reportage, and discussed how developments such as 24-hour news services and the internationalisation of coverage have changed the way journalists create and consume financial stories. He went on to outline vital skills that the next generation of financial reporters must gain in order to ensure the successful future of financial journalism. He said: “The key tasks are to re-establish the trust
of the public, to provide an independent perspective on key developments, to understand that the news agenda has become global rather than national or regional, and to make sure that the vast wealth of information that now flows to financial institutions can be reported and understood in a timely fashion.” The course, London’s first financial journalism MA, started in September 2010.
Leonard Downie Jr