Author: newswriters

Ramon Lobato (RMIT University)ramon.lobato@rmit.edu.auForthcoming in Television and New MediaApril 2017ABSTRACT This article considers how established methodologies for researching television distribution can be adapted for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services. Specifically, I identify a number of critical questions – some old, some new – that can be investigated by looking closely at SVOD catalogs in different countries. Using Netflix as an example, and drawing parallels with earlier studies of broadcast and cinema schedules, I ask what Netflix’s international catalogs can tell us about content diversity within streaming services, and how this can be connected to longer traditions of debate about the direction…

What to avoid when reporting conflict and abuse?Reporting conflict and abuse is complex. Often the facts are not revealed in a way that offers the level of understanding the situation demands. The journalist needs to be sensitive, have an understanding of history, be aware of cultural issues, and put people before the story. Here are 10 tips for reporting conflict and abuse.1: Don’t write in clichés“The Heart of Darkness” is the title of a book by Joseph Conrad written in the early part of the 20th Century about a trip up the River Congo. It does not need to feature…

Vijay Lokapally |Sport is about celebration and reporting human endeavour and achievement, the failures and is appointments too, with absolute understanding. A reporter must bear in mind the hard work put in by sports persons. When judging his/her performance, the reporter must highlight the effort of the sport persons with objectivity paramount. Sometimes, even the best does not help. It is here that the reporter’s calibre and reading of the game comes into play.The late R. Sriman, a much-respected writer, told me once that in cricket it is quite possible that we criticise a fielder for having dropped a skier…

An idea is an angle about a subject that you believe will interest the readers of your newspaper. Without new ideas the editorial pages would be pretty dull. But where do ideas come from? And how do you find them?When you are lucky, an idea can sometimes find you. But more often you have to search for ideas. This sounds difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Every writer has their own way of developing ideas. The longer you work for a particular newspaper, the more attuned you will become to the type of ideas that will interest your readers.By…

Pradeep Nair and Sandeep Sharma |“A University is a place … where students come from every quarter for every kind of knowledge; … a place for the communication and circulation of thought … It is a place where inquiry is pushed forward … discoveries verified and perfected, and … error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge. … Thus is created a pure and clear atmosphere of thought, which the student also breathes”.  John Henry Newman, 1854, The Idea of a UniversityJohn Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University is a classic work on university…

By Kalinga SeneviratneIn January 2003, French Communications Professor Ignacio Ramonet told an audience of over 5,000 young people, mainly from Latin America, attending the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in Brazil that Corporations now own and produce not only traditional media, but everything which we call culture and communication. They are also involved in leisure, pop music, cinema and sports. They have no objective of being the ‘fourth estate’ to protect the citizenry from abuse of power by governments. “They have come together as a power,” he argued. “The fourth power (estate) is now exploiting and oppressing the populations…

 COVID–19 has intensified concerns about misinformation. Here’s what our past research says about these issuesDr. J. Scott Brennen & Professor Rasmus Kleis NielsenThe production and the spread of misinformation have become major concerns for scholars, policy makers, and commentators across the world.As the outbreak unfolds, here are seven findings on the scope of information disorder worldwideUncertainty and controversy around the COVID–19 pandemic has intensified the debate about misinformation in the last few weeks. “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic”, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. We don’t have new data on how the outbreak is changing…

COVID-19: Sinophobia Threatening to Endanger Strengthening the Biological Weapons ConventionKalinga SeneviratneWith the spread of COVID-19 to Europe and the US a bout of Sinophobia seems to have infected the western media. On March 29, Australia’s 60-minute program – that is well known for sensational reporting – broadcast a program that portrayed China as the villain of the COVID-19 pandemonium, and just stopped short of calling for war against China.This reminded me of the propaganda that the Anglo-American media broadcast around the world about alleged ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that Saddam Hussein had, that led to the attack and invasion of…

Tom EngelhardtPresident Donald Trump recently took away CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass. He told to the correspondent: “I’ll tell you what: CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN”. None of Acosta’s media compatriots, not even at CNN, decided, for instance, to protest by refusing to cover another White House event until he got that pass back (though CNN is suing the Trump administration). None of them evidently even seriously considered closing the door, shutting the gate, turning their backs on you-know-who.…

The title of WhatsApp’s official post explaining its decision, “Keeping WhatsApp Personal and Private,” could not better illustrate the point Andrea Iannone & Antonio Carnevale “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear”- Antonio Gramsci On Tuesday, April 7, WhatsApp announced it would place new limits on the forwarding of messages identified as “highly forwarded” i.e. sent by a chain of five or more people. These messages can now only be forwarded to a single person. In fact, on its…