Thursday, July 29, 2010

Defending their History

People keep pointing at them, staring at them, posing for photos with them, talking about them & taking them for granted. But, who are they & what’s their story?

Photo I:

Michal Zdansky (left), a 36 years old 1st lieutenant, who’s been in the castle service for 2 years was the first who spoke to us about his experience in this job. He gave us an insight of how things go in the castle with the guards; explaining to us that one guard has a 3 hours shift per day; 1 hour by each gate. And when asked about why he does what he’s doing, this is what he had to say “money & patriotism”.

His fellow colleague Lucas Osladil (right), is a 27 years old castle guard who’s been in this post for 7 years now; he does like his job; & when asked about it; he pointed at his chest; having Zdansky translating to us what he said: “heart”.


Photo II:

Number 54 (left): that was the name of the police man whom we’ve talked to in the castle yard, in front of the Presidential office, where he’s been working in for 5 years. When we asked for his name, he said it was a secret & that policemen were identified only by their badge numbers; his was 54.

On his left was Jiri (Czech name for George), a 41 years old castle guard who’s been working there for 6 years was the only one who told us he did this job for the money. He couldn’t tell us about how much that “money” was, but we were able to find out some further details later on.


Photos III, IV, & V:

Petr Syhora, the 23 years old student on the left side of the picture has been working in the army since he was 19. Besides that job, he studies at the Faculty of Physical Education.

His shift-partner (ride side guard) Tomas Kalliel is a 26 years old father of 2 children.
And both Petr & Tomas were finishing their 5-to-6pm shift by the moment.






Photo VI:

Milos Kafka, a 21 years old soldier was kind enough to portray for us an overall picture of how things work there. He told us the following:
The soldiers in the castle are the ‘elite’ part of the army; that’s why many of them chose that job over the military army. And he explained how the Ministry of Defense is divided into an Army department & the Castle Guard one.
On how long they work as castle guards; he said it’s around 10 years; after which they give up their military positions for civil ones. As former militaries, they receive a monthly salary of 4, 000 Kc.
As for why they quit after around 10 years, Milos said it’s mainly because of the knee problems they start suffering from because of the nature of their position. But what keeps them working as guards, according to Kafka is the prestige & the symbolic meaning of guarding the castle & the Czech history!
Besides the prestige, their working conditions are quite good, as they only work for 14 days/a month, with 14 days off, which allows them to have a family life, & to continue with their studies & other jobs.


Děkuji!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Photo Esaay : Heat Wave

By the River, On the Bridge

By Emilia, Tricia and Puja

Tourists visit the Czech Republic’s beautiful capital from all over the world in July. Wise tourists spend much of their time near the Vltava River and the Charles Bridge. The bridge offers a spectacular view of Prague’s waterways, and the river offers a number of ways to relax and cool down.


At Kampe Park next to the Vltava River some students practice
pantomime. Kate Uotozkova, 20, dances in the middle. Andrew Holba, 21
(in the green shirt), and Jerry Jole, 24, juggle while Vaclav Pundalo,
24, plays guitar in the background. They practice in Prague and
perform on the Charles Bridge, constructed in 1357, during the day,
but they also perform in France, where they feel street art is taken
more seriously.


Michael Bernatik, a 28-year-old Czech from the city of Kromeriz, came
to Prague on holiday with his girlfriend, Lucia Kourelova,
27, and her dog, Arvika. Here they walk on the banks of the Vltava
river, the longest in the Czech Republic and the subject of many
musical compositions, where Arvika seems to be looking for some fish.


Archibald is an artist who specializes in line and charcoal
drawings. Here he draws three girls who pose for him on the bridge. It takes about three minutes to finish a portrait.


Maya, 27, and her mom Lydia, 55, perform folk and
classical music almost every day on the Charles Bridge, beside many
other artists who perform adjacent to the 30 statues on the bridge. Many stop to listen, but not all listeners pay.


Two sailors, Lassi, 36, and Mayo, 29, help tourists onto a
tour boat. The tour leaves every 10 minutes from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.,
and it costs 290 Krona. The name of the tour company is Prazske
Benatky. Many other companies operate on the river, among them one
which offers a jazz performance. Popular stops on the tour are Prague
castle, the Strahov Monastry, St. Nicholas Church and the Petrin
Tower.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Challenges of Changing Media Landscape: Marius Dragomir, Policy reports Editor, Open Society Foundation

Dragomir’s talk on Thursday revolved around the following:

· Changes in the way journalism is produced and distributed

· The need for “legacy” journalism to adapt to new platforms or die

· The crisis of public sector broadcasting

· New patterns of news packaging brought on by the Internet

· Increased need for new technical skills for journalists

· Over regulation and over control of news

· The collapse of the traditional business model

· Dismay at the direction in which quality journalism was going.

His thoughts were distilled from the report “Mapping Digital Media” (www.mediapolicy.org) a global project covering 60 countries, undertaken by the Open Society Foundation (www.osf-eu.org) and to be released next summer. The project looks at the state of journalism across Europe, Africa, Latin America, India, Japan and the Middle East to decipher how traditional journalism has responded to the changes brought about by the digital media.

Within the above broad parameters the report finds that

· There is a major refocusing of consumption of news from traditional to digital media

· Public sector broadcasting is languishing (in Macedonia when the government made it optional to pay for such broadcasting, collections fell from 83 percent to 0.01 percent). This could be because of the politicization of stations (eg. in appointment of key personnel) and the following loss of credibility leading to a loss of almost 90 percent market share

· Within society digital media is giving rise to digital activism (eg the Twitter Revolution in Iran)

· There is increase in the amount of available information and the speed with which sources of information can be reached although on the downside this is leading to the death of investigative reporting and giving a fillip to recycling and repackaging of verified and unverified information

· For a lot of the younger generation the main source of information and news is often in the form of non-serious, colourful websites like kissfm.com where news is a hotch potch of other content

· Only one or two established media outlets feature in the list of top 10 news websites, where social networks are most visible

· Changing technology affects journalists in myriad ways. For example the allocation of spectrum permits the number of channels to increase exponentially and one broadcaster might get more frequency to keep new players out

· There is growing ownership of telecom companies of media outlets, especially in the US and Europe which is not good.

· There are new gate keepers in the digital age who package and relay content to the viewer’s home. This includes the producers of Electronic Programming Guides who can put down or yank off the list a particular programme

· There is growing legislation regarding who owns content on the Internet. (In Romania for example Internet bloggers deemed offensive are punished by asking the ISP to cut off their connection)

For more information e mail Dragomir at: marius.dragomir@osf-eu.org

Nathaniel Carden

Puja Awasthi

Ethics blog post group

Rehman, Anil, Emilia & Mariam:

Your task is to take the ethics scenarios we worked on as a class this morning. Select one that was not discussed as a class. List your considerations as a list of questions. Beneath your list of considerations, spend a paragraph or two talking about what action you would take.

Your deadline: Friday by 5 p.m.

A code of ethics to consider

A code of media ethics:

1. Write the facts as you see them.
2. A story without a source is a source of trouble.
3. A source is not a source when the story is based on rumour.
4. When in doubt, leave it out.
5. Prejudge no one.
6. Be objective.
7. Divorce comment from news and label each as such.
8. Commentators are not exempt from the duty to be accurate.
9. Never incite racial or religious division.
10. Enlighten, lest we fail to understand one another.

From the International Media Council

Media ethics websites + other resources

A handful of sites that I find useful.

http://www.spj.org/ethics.asp

The Society of Professional Journalists, a broad-based American organization of journalism with a website full of helpful information.

http://www.ejc.nl/

The European Journalism Centre, a Netherlands-based organization focussed on rights, issues and resources for European journalists.

http://www.globalpost.com/

Global Post, international news for a digital age.

http://www.the-hub.net/

The Hub, the world's first participatory media site for human rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_Freedom_Consortium

A group dedicated to anti-censorship software worldwide.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/about/

Global Voices, a site for bloggers around the world, citizen media.

http://www.cimethics.org/

Center for International Media Ethics, a site created by former EJI participants.

http://www.peoplesearchpro.com/journalism/media/ethics.htm

A site that links to 320 codes of ethics from journalism outlets around the world.

http://ncfmedia.blogspot.com/

A blog from the International Media Council, an international group of journalists and opinion makers concerned about international media.

http://www.icfj.org/

International Center for Journalists, a website of resources and a list of trainings and workshops for young journalists.









Rob Cameron

BBC's CAMERON: SUCCESS IN JOURNALISM REQUIRES DIVERSIFICATION OF MEDIUMS

By Jessica Corry

The cobblestone streets were paved in gold.
So thought Rob Cameron in 1993, as he landed in post-Soviet Prague for the first time in his young life. Originally from the UK, he came to escape the dissolution and depression that he now recalls defined his previous life in London.
In the chaos of his new city’s daily life, he found a new purpose. While he had been rejected from a journalism school in his home country, the move east ultimately allowed him to daily transcribe the stories and lives of millions of people and multiple countries.
Today a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Cameron covers politics and culture for the network’s radio, TV, and online segments. He’s also writing a book, chronicling his three-week journey across the Czech Republic by slow train.
According to Cameron, his 17-year rise to journalism’s highest echelon have taken a similar meandering path—one about which he has no regrets. “If you want to be a journalist, stick with that dream,” he told a gathering of young journalists at a downtown Prague restaurant Wednesday. “It will happen.”
Together with Katerina Zachovalova and Jeremy Druker, other Prague-based reporters, Cameron’s address came to the Fund For American Studies’ European Journalism Institute. The trio told their personal stories, also agreeing on a common theme: a journalism career in 2010 means setting aside ego, and possessing a tireless commitment to wearing many hats.
To get there, Cameron first needed to learn the language. He studied Czech for several years, while also teaching English to pay his rent. By 1999, he caught a break when he joined Radio Prague, where he remains a regular contributor. In 2001, he had joined the BBC, and by 2004, he was working as a correspondent for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Katerina Zachovalova

Today Katerina Zachovalova (DPA), Rob Cameron (BBC)
and Jeremy Druker (TOL) talked to EJI students in Prague about fixers,
foreign correspondents and breaking into the business of working outside your national media.



Here are some quick facts about Katerina Zachovalova:

• - Katerina Zachovalova has reported for the English language service of Deutsche Presse
Agentur, known as DPA, a German news agency, since 2007. She is Czech, but fluent in English.

• - She has freelanced for both Czech and English media for a decade.

• - Her stories were published in Time Magazine and Time.com

• - She contributed reporting to stories ran by The Economist and The New York Times.

• - She earned a journalism degree from Columbia University in New York in 2003. She also
studied journalism and media studies at Charles University in Prague.



Here are some interesting things that she mentioned during the lecture:

• - She became a journalist by accident, because a friend of her told her
she could write well and because her grandmother was a journalist.

• - One of her professors helped her changed her attitude towards journalism.
In Columbia University she learned how to write stories. During the 90s, universities in Eastern
Europe only focused on lectures and theory and the students hardly wrote any stories.

• - She started out as a fixer when she was a student and did some research for
The Economist, for journalists who covered Eastern Europe. This happened by accident,
because she met someone at somebody’s wedding.
- She has also been a fixer for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, etc.


• - People didn’t tell her what they wanted. She had to tell them what to do and who
to talk to because they live in different countries.



Something that might come in handy if you want to work in an agency is to know
“a day in the life” of a journalist at DPA:

• - Katerina Zachovalova wakes up at 9am. She reads the newspapers, checks the Czech
news agencies, the news channels, etc. That takes her between 10 and 30 minutes.

• - She writes her editor based in Vienna and has a conference call at around 10:30
am to tell him/her what is going on and what stories she has come up with. She has to know what
is important and write stories about that.

• - She goes to press conferences, interviews, etc.

• - Her stories are for the English service, so they do not have to be German oriented,
even if she works for DPA. She sends her news stories as soon as possible. Not everything gets
published.

• - During her spare time she focuses on features and fun stories that could turn out
pretty interesting.

• - She thinks young journalists can learn simple and clear writing by working at an
agency, as well as good reporting. She highly recommends it.



If you want to contact her, her email address is
katerina@czechjournalist.com



You can check most of her work at Time.com website

Jeremy Druker's advice about pitching your ideas.

Jeremy Druker, founder and editor-in-chief of Transitions Online, (TOL) an English publication about Eastern Europe spoke to EJI 2010, this afternoon. He discussed how TOL's shift from print onto a virtual on-line plane was relatively new and expirimental back in 1999. He mentions how 80% of their staff are local journalists who compile stories with deep analyses about post communist countries.

TOL also provides training programs for independent journalists and focuses on discussing aspects of the free media. For further information about TOL and their training programs please visit http://www.tol.org/client/

Druker's do's and don't s when it comes to pitching your stories successfully : a freelancer's guide
  1. Do not consume most of your time and energy on pitching to big newspapers but try local smaller publications .
  2. Do not export your pitch in bulk to the same media. It will not reflect well on you, when 2-3 editors, call back all wanting to run your stories and they find out you have already contacted their competitors.
  3. Try pitching to specialized print publications.
  4. Do provide a synopsis of your pitch and avoid being wordy and refrain from e-mailing the publications your entire story.
  5. Give enough background clips, provide your blog's URL or recent publications you have freelanced with, this looks extremely professional to potential editors.
  6. Try employing a more counter intuitive approach in your stories, a unique pitch is definitely a story that might have been repeated but diversifying the story's angle is what editors tend to notice.
Druker also explains that one of today's greatest journalistic challenges is " trying to explain what we think is important to an international audience."

An interesting point brought up today during the discussion

Even though citizen journalism today might offset our conventional ways of thinking when it comes to credible journalism. One should resort to this new flood of information as a complement to our journalistic work rather than a morbid substitute. Druker mentions how he finds you-tube media a fascinating interface that can be both filtered and useful to the masses. One can use this on-line interface to post messages to everyone asking for a 5 minute commentary on a particular situation rather than considering it a reliable source of the information.



By Sara Al Mojaddidi

Information Please 2

In conventional usage, the media deliver an information flow. The term information goes with thought, cognition, knowledge. It sounds as hard and objective and masculine as emotion sounds soft and subjective and feminine.

Many commentators today think of the mind as an information processor. But what if we tease apart the notion of information?

We see into our current situation more deeply if we consider information as something that happens within a human setting, something that people approach, seek, develop, employ, avoid, circulate and resist. We do live in an information society, but no less, if less famously, it is also a society of feeling and sensation, toward the furtherance of which information is sometimes useful.

Information Please

The centrality of media is disguised, in part, by the prevalance of that assured, hard-edged phrase information society, or even more grandly, information age.

Such terms are instant propaganda for a way of life that is also a way of progress.

Who in his/her right mind could be against information or want to be without it? Who wouldn't want to produce, consume, and accumulate more of this useful stuff, remove obstacles to its spread, invest in it, see better variants of it sprng to life?

Information age glows with a positive aura. The very term information points to a gift--specific and ever replenished, shining forth in the bright light of utility. Ignorance is not bliss, information is.

But we diminish the significance of media and our reliance on them in everyday life by classifying them merely as channels of information. Media today are occassions for something we call fun, comfort, convenience or pleasure. We have come to care tremendously about how we feel and how readily we can change our feelings.

Media are means. We aim, through media, to indulge and serve our hungers by inviting images and sounds into our lives, making them come and go with ease in a never-ending quest for stimulus and sensation. Our prevailing business is the business not of information but of satisfaction, the feeling of feelings, to which we give as much time as we can manage.

To an unprecedented degree, the torrent of images, songs, logos, brands, text, and stories streaming has become our familiar world.

--Todd Gitlin, media theoritician

On Speed

We tend to think that speed, the velocity of the landscape is something we are wrestling with only now in these times. But this is a quote from Nietzsche in 1882:

"One is ashamed of resting, and prolonged reflection almost gives people a bad conscience. One thinks with a watch in one's hand, even as one eats one's midday meal while reading the latest news of the stock market, one lives as if one might "miss out on something"...Virtue has come to consist of doing something in less time than someone else."

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Notes from Sam Stewart's Lectures

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images to tell a story. Each news photo expresses timeliness, objectivity and a narrative. Photojournalism has changed dramatically since the advent of portable cameras and publications that distribute the images.

POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
A powerful image has context in context, evokes emotion and inspires action.

Images assist stories by broadening audience reach, encouraging audience engagement and increasing the likelihood of the story being prominently published. Planning and brainstorming photo possibilities are an important part of preparing a story.

ETHICS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
Multiple news agencies have codes of ethics for photography. They include accuracy, honesty with subjects, limiting editing, not paying sources or subjects, and not sabotaging other photographers. Manipulation of magazine cover photos is an important ethical question.

New technology and methods of publishing have changed photojournalism in recent years, and they present new ethical issues. While there are fewer print publications, there are more photographers than ever and more ways to distribute content. Publishers have to be careful to verify a photo's accuracy.

6 ELEMENTS OF A GOOD PHOTO.
Composition is the pleasant arrangement of elements, and it considers balance and framing, including and excluding, the rule of thirds, negative space and compression.

Lighting considers the time of day, magic hours, quality of the light and backlighting.

Color options include bold and contrasting colors.

Graphics include repetition and patterns, the use of lines, shapes, implied motion and converging lines.

Someone looking for moments is mindful of timing, storytelling, peak action and facial expression.

The best uses of perspective involve changing it to something unusual, considering different angels, getting level with the subject, focusing on the focus and simplifying.

Sam can be reached at samiamphoto@aol.com.

Blog Post group #2

Select three of the photos from the news photo assignment. You cannot select photos that your group shot. Critique each of the three photos based on what you heard Sam say in his lecture on Tuesday morning. Whether you liked the photo is secondary, what merit does it have as a news photo? Be sure to consider the information included in the caption as well.

After you critique three photos, describe the process your group went through from when the photos were assigned to when your group posted them on facebook. Articulate the process. Be specific.

Write your comments here on the watchdog blog. Your deadline is Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Notes from Beata Balagova's lecture

Suggestions by Henry Dubroff, a veteran business editor:
--Become a financial news junkie. Pay attention to developments even if there appears to be no local angle.
--Look for hooks/angles in local releases.
--Read the last line of press releases first.
--Use your sources not only for quotes, but for insights and explanations and deeper knowledge of the information.
--Become comfortable with basic financial terms: assets, balance sheets, fiscal year, deficit, liabilities, public finance deficit, capital expenditures, stockholders equity, balance sheet, debt.
--Never be afraid to return to a company or a source as many times as you need to get the story.
--The best stories are often the ones that break late on your beat.
--Read all major publications in your field.

Blog Post group #1

This assignment is for Nana, Melda, Nina, Rita, Miko and Anastasia. Choose at least one of the questions below to answer. Feel free to answer more than one. Write freely. Use your own life experience to help illustrate your answer if you choose.

Your comments will not be graded, but give me a chance to see how you think and put your thoughts into words. Don't worry about your English; I know for most it is not your first language. The most important thing is your thoughts.

1. What did Beata mean when she said, "Your ignorance as a journalist only helps the government?" Do you examples of this in your country?
2. Beata said that journalists don't want to be equal partners with politicians. What does this mean to you? Why shouldn't journalists be equal partners with politicians? Or should they?
3. Beata said that press releases have a perfect logic. What does this mean? How can journalists best use press releases? What are some of the practices of using press releases by journalists in your country or city or newspaper?
4. Beata said that a healthy skepticism is important. What does this mean exactly? Do you think journalists you know have a healthy skepticism? Do you? Why would you need this to be successful?
5. Describe the relationships you have with your sources (if you are a journalist). How often do you see them? In what circumstances? Are you friends? Do you share personal information?
6. Beata said that when journalists write stories they have to do a lot more work and gather a lot more information than they will put into their stories. Do you do this (if you are a journalist?) Why would this be a practice for a good journalist? How do you know when you do have enough information for a story?

Write your comments. The deadline is Tuesday at 17:30.

curious: the photo assignment

You are in teams of three except for a brave duo. You are to take two different news photos. The photos:

Cannot contain anyone you know.
Must not be manipulated or staged.
Must contain people.
Must have information about every person in the photograph. If people will not give you their name, then you must use another photo.

For many of you this is the first news photo you will have taken. It is an experiment. You will learn by doing. Look for something of interest happening. Open your eyes and shoot shoot shoot. Make sure everyone on the team shoots and participates in the photo selection process.

Post your 2 group photos and their captions with all the relevant information onto the EJI 2010 facebook page by 10 p.m. Monday.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Ideas

Greetings all:

It's your assignment that you will be posting here to the watchdog.

Five groups. Four ideas from each group. Be sure that each of your ideas are written in one complete sentence. Beneath that sentence that encompasses your ideas, tell me--your editor--who will be your sources, the shape of the story, how you envision it.

Remember: our EJI website has video, sound, images. Your ideas can be in the form of a live camera, a video stream, a radio story, a photo essay, text. You can use graphs, charts, interactive or static maps. Be creative. Don't suggest obvious ideas but don't reach for ideas that are so unusual that they will not be relevant to your readers/viewers.

Some things to consider: Are these stories journalism or are they public relations or advertising? What is the difference between these three forms?

Do these stories interest your audience? Do they interest you? How important is it to have interesting stories? How can you tell if/when a story is interesting?

Post by noon tomorrow. And then enjoy your walking tour of Prague. I'll see you in the pub.

Professor Kelly

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

Why is journalism important?

This question is open to all EJI 2010 participants. Answer in ONE SENTENCE ONLY. Sign your name and your country to the bottom of your comment.

--Laura Kelly, EJI professor

How does the watchdog work exactly?

I'll post questions, links, statements. You will be assigned to a group. When your group is assigned to respond or post, you write your thoughts here on the watchdog. It's that easy.

You won't be criticized for spelling errors, though taking care with language is a hallmark of professionalism in journalism. English is a second language for many of you. It's your thoughts that are of the most interest--their clarity, their logic, their depth. Think before you write. And then write the best you can. Be brief. Be clear.

--Laura Kelly, EJI professor