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Once, twice, 238 times an author Jewish paper gets online revamp THE Jewish Chronicle is collaborating with seven City University students to revamp the Jewish newspaper’s website. The students, enrolled on the electronic publishing MA, have been working with online specialists from The Jewish Chronicle in order to produce a new template for the existing site by May. They will transform the website’s design, business directory and news archive which dates back to 1841. Each student has been assigned an area of the website to improve. They will pitch their initial concepts to a panel of staff, including editor Stephen Pollard and managing editor Richard Burton. Burton said: “I am treating the students as if they worked for a digital agency. They will get a hard time. I will offer a great deal of honest, business-like feedback. What I expect in return is some cutting-edge thinking that will shape our website.” Each student’s work on the project will be assessed as part of their course. Student Anna Walters, who is in charge of designing the layout for the new site, said: “I chose this project because I wanted the professional feedback. I have never designed a website before and I think it will be a great challenge for me to put my ideas to the test.” Burton added that electing City students for the project was an easy decision. “The collaboration is risk-free. I know the quality of City students and I am confident enough to be associated with their work,” he explained. Olivia Wakefield
Author and ex-City student Ian Graham with just a small selection of his books
Sophie Monks Kaufman COULD a former City student be one of Britain’s most prolific authors? Ian Graham (diploma, 1978) has been commissioned to write his 238th book, My First Book of Transport, an 80-page non-fiction work for children to be published by Harper Collins. This comes 29 years after he first made the switch from journalist to author with Computer and Video Games, published by Usborne Books in 1982. The bulk of Graham’s extraordinary output has been non-fiction for children with subjects ranging from space
exploration to the internet to military technology. He has worked with over 30 publishers including Dorling Kindersley, part of the Penguin Group. Graham is sanguine about the breadth of his achievement. He said: “I like paying the mortgage. Writing is my only source of income, so you’ve really just got to keep going. If you’re a car mechanic, you fix car after car. If you’re a writer, you write book after book.” Graham’s proudest achievement is a 2010 graphic novel retelling the story of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
TWO years after graduating from the investigative journalism MA, ex-student James Ball has returned to teach on the same course. Ball began teaching data journalism skills on computer assisted reporting workshops for students on the MA this year. Since graduating in 2008 Ball has been working closely on data-related stories both with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and with WikiLeaks. He is currently a data reporter for the Guardian. Speaking of his appointment, Ball said that he was keen to emphasise that traditional journalistic skills are still needed in the field of data journalism: “This isn’t about learning how to use a computer better or becoming a statistics nerd. It’s 0
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not about how to make a good graph or confuse your audience by throwing lots of numbers at them. It’s about stories and that’s the key thing.” He wants students to come away with the tools for filtering large volumes of data. He said: “Right now virtually every piece of government information is being released in the form of data. Unless you feel like you can understand and criticise it you’re not going to be able to cope with how corporate and government information comes out.” This is not the first time Ball has taught data journalism at City. Visiting Professor Heather Brooke, who worked to reveal the MPs’ expenses scandal, invited him in for one session to give a lecture to students on the 2009/10 investigative course. Head of
Photo: the Guardian
Having a Ball with data journalism
James Ball
investigative journalism Rosie Waterhouse then asked Ball to come back on a more regular basis. Sophie Monks Kaufman