RT @newsrewired: Times communities editor Joanna Geary to give keynote at news:rewired http://bit.ly/bhhIsT #journalism #newsrw
– Chris Unitt (ChrisUnitt) http://twitter.com/ChrisUnitt/status/2706825556271104

"Despite what years of local monopoly may have taught many veteran journalists, readers don't automatically show up for whatever you publish."

"As you may know, people in some of your organisations have lately tried to characterise news aggregators as undermining your businesses. Recently your organisations have also sought to introduce new controls on our linking to your websites. Now, a number of parties have threatened us (plus other aggregators) with legal action if we do not either accept these new controls or else stop linking."

One of the questions that's often asked about the decline of local newspapers is how will local government be held to account if no-one is watching? Manchester website MULE decided to have a go, with predictably depressing results. This reminded me of when I first started dabbling in blogging about Birmingham and went to an event at the Birmingham council chamber. Mike Whitby, the leader, spoke for 20 minutes. I had no idea what he said. One might think they don't want people to understand them.

Social Journalism or Social Reporting is a term that's been bandied around recently. I was struggling to figure out how it was different to old fashioned blogging and the like. This definition makes a bit of sense - it's the curating of the stuff that bubbles up from social networks.

"What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers. Watching a Twitter #hashtag for posts related to a critical local issue or big event, then publishing them in a roundup or sidebar on your news site? That’s Social Journalism. Scanning YouTube for the latest video from a protest, county fair, or city council meeting? That’s Social Journalism."

Great article by Alan Patrick.

"We tend to forget that the reason for profits is unique access to bottleneck resources. In the case of the media it has been production and distribution. The 'Net changed all that of course - production and distribution is now in the hands of anyone with a PC and a 'Net connection."[...] To me the message is fairly clear - the New Bottlenecks will be Independent Thought, Editing & Curation, and Journalistic Storytelling. [...] This to me is the issue that "HobbyMedia" will face - the "Pro" media will find the new bottlenecks and spend all their time and energy in mastering them.

I've long been skeptical of Alan's view on amateur produced media but his position is becoming clear now and I think this could well be applied outside of news journalism. What are your bottlenecks?

Nice Ars Technica analysis of how the Associated Press intends to protect news. In short, they can't, it won't and the microformat technology they're planning to use doesn't even do that. One for the "sad death throes of traditional news distribution" files.

Usually I shy away from Delicious link-dumps like this (even though I'm just as guilty - I suspect this link will be accompanied be far too many when it gets published) but a quick skim through Andy's indicates it's chock full of goodness, especially if you're interested in online journalism and news.

A lot of this article is about the technical stuff, which is interesting, but the universal lesson for any kind of participation is "Your workers are unpaid, so make it fun"

"A blog following the Daily Mail’s ongoing mission to divide all the inanimate objects in the world into those that cause or cure cancer." <i>via <a href="http://mondoagogo.com/2009/01/12/the-daily-mail-oncological-ontology-project/">Anna J</a></i>

Tim Ireland explains to a 'journalist' how Google works by example.

A lovely tribute to the classic era of journalism that, as someone in the comments point out, was mythical decades ago. Still, it's a evocation that makes my spine tingle. "A newspaperman wore black slacks, a bit worn. A short-sleeved white shirt and a thin black necktie. A newspaperman owned one pair of black wingtips for his entire career. A newspaperman had nicknames, raunchy, rude and unashamedly affectionate nicknames, for all of the linotype operators in the basement. A newspaperman reveled in the composing room heat, the smells of melted lead and oily black ink. But the newspaperman was most at home in the newsroom. A loud, smoky, smelly place. Wire machines. Real phones with loud rings. The morning news meeting held in the men's room, the last two stalls on the right, each editor doing his business while conducting business."

This is interesting, I think. A lot of noise occurred when Stevens was one of the first web cartoonists to get a newspaper deal on his own terms. Now he's quitting papers and sticking to his online business. You can't necessarily translate his experience to others as he has his own thing going on, but...

Following Adam Tinworth's "Why Media Gets Community Wrong" rant.

Great rant from Adam Tinworth which can be summarised as "Community is not a place. Community is an approach to publishing." Plenty in there to learn from.

Azeem Ahmad, one of the more switched on journo students I know, was pretty unimpressed with the launch 4iP "investment fund for innovation". I have plenty to say here about the clash of cultures being a problem but, yeah, later.

Handy post from Caitlin Fitzsimmons rounding up the issues surrounding dealing with anonymous misogyny online.

Very detailed explanation of how they moderate comments. Could be useful to those managing a large community site where things gets a bit fractious at times.

Joanna Geary on lessons learned from an anonymous misogynistic attack left in her comments.

Applying "link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto your good stuff" to news orgs.

Mark is skeptical about the notion of "digital natives" and I think I agree. He says: "Its not an age thing. Its a curiosity thing. Which makes me a bit sad that so few journalists get it. Curiosity should be our stock-in-trade."

A very blunt keynote to journalists looking for a lifeline.

Paul Groves asks some important and interesting questions about blogs in newspapers. I should address this myself since I blog for the paper in question.

Interesting questions from the editor. My comments to follow.

Martin Belam reports on an event in London that, in places, would have had me tearing my hair out, if I had any.

Long and link-full article by Paul Bradshaw rounding up loads of Twitter tools.

"In case some of the mainstream media haven't got this yet - 'THE WEB DOES NOT OWE YOU A LIVING'. It doesn't care that you have been doing this for years, you have to earn your eyeballs like everyone else." - Andy Dickinson

Paul Bradshaw rounds up the journalism "unconference" he ran last week.

An "unconference" run by Paul Bradshaw in Birmingham next month that looks to be getting a lot of international attention.

Or maybe that should be: what journalists need to know about distributed conversations.