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MEAA/Walkley Public Affairs conference - “Public affairs in the Age of Rudd”.


There’s not a lot of detail on the programme at this stage, but the MEAA and the Walkley Awards are co-hosting a conference, “Public Affairs in the Age of Rudd“, in Canberra on the 19th and 20th of August. If it’s anywhere near as stimulating as the the “Future of Journalism”, it’s bound to be [...]

NAB-gate part 2: Advice to McCain also applies to banks.


This is a follow-up to the other day’s post, and the first of two that nicks stuff from the always stimulating Tree of Knowledge
Via TOK comes some advice from Todd Zeigler on John McCain’s “spread the word” campaign, which has been seen by bloggers as a toolkit for outright trolling. (Go to the [...]

First-Hand Citizen Reporting from the Presidential Race


For those of our readers following the US Presidential campaign and wanting to look beyond mainstream coverage, Henry Jenkins has a nice overview of a few citizen journalism projects which aim to provide alternative perspectives on the election race.
It’s nice to see the emphasis on first-hand reporting here (which was also a key aspect of [...]

Interactive map of journalists killed in the line of duty.


Journos get a bit of stick in the blogosphere sometimes, but it’s worth remembering that their job requires bravery. Especially in areas afflicted by authoritarian governments, corruption or civil disorder, they often risk their lives simply by doing their jobs. Graphic proof is available on this interactive map from MSN which shows where and when [...]

Newspaper traffic outstripping Google News


Editor and Publisher today has a report (worth reading in full) on Nielsen data suggesting that some high-profile newspapers and broadcasting news brands are far outstripping Google news in terms of unique traffic. The New York Times is the leading newspaper by traffic, and MSNBC and CNN Digital Network are in the top five. The [...]

A long bow? Petrol, the Torres Strait, the multi-speed economy, and broadband ;)


Tonight’s 7.30 Report story about the disproportionate impact of high fuel prices in the Torres Strait was excellent. While a lot of the coverage of rising energy prices has concentrated on impacts on metropolitan commuters, and the he-said she-said antics of Governments and Oppositions on who’s to blame, this showed us how much is at [...]

The Blogosphere’s Newspoll ritual.


Newspoll Tuesday has become a bit of an occasion in the Australian blogosphere. The influence of the pseph bloggers, the moments of antagonism between the blogosphere and the Oz last year, the motivation to enter into further fruitful dialogue with Dennis Shanahan, and the urge to take Dr Nelson’s temperature have meant that most of [...]

Bank botches blogosphere break-in: NAB’s “spam-gate”


Today’s Crikey carries a story about the NAB (or rather a PR firm representing them, Cox&Inall) spamming Australian blogs with promotional comments. Rather than impotence treatments or naughty pictures, this spam (posted on sports blogs) was inviting blog readers to enter a promotion being run for the bank. The story is behind the Crikey paywall, [...]

Possum gives back - The Possum Box sails forth


Along with his fellow pseph bloggers, Possum Comitatus made a big splash during the Federal Election campaign, and he now has a loyal, politically literate readership. Now he’s giving some more back to the Australian blogosphere.
On the weekend, he launched a companion site for his blog, the Possum Box, that he’s thrown open as a [...]

Concept Maps for Selected Australian Political Blogs, Part II


In this second part, we’ll follow on from our discussion of key themes in The Other Cheek, Larvatus Prodeo, and Club Troppo by looking at the concept maps which Leximancer produces. But first, a recap of the background for this study: I’ve already posted about our work in developing a new methodology for mapping link [...]