news

Second year students produced their first television news bulletin on Wednesday. They were required to produced 15 minutes of international, national and local news on the day, and broadcast it live at 5pm. They also had to include a live two-way with one of their reporters notionally on location (although actually in an office next to the studio). I think it's an impressive performance from the team, with four packages produced on the day. You can watch the full bulletin here.

Google has added a new section to its Google News service that aims to highlight "in-depth pieces of lasting value" culled from its regular aggregate sources of journalism. The service is called Spotlight, and it uses one of Google's infamous computer algorithms to automatically select items of "investigative journalism, opinion pieces, special-interest articles, and other stories of enduring appeal", according to the search giant.

This blog accidentally got deleted, so I've re-pasted it here.

This is an interesting insight in to the development of The Metro newspaper and one man's vision as to how he would create it. The newspaper which has now existed for 10 years, celebrates its anniversary today. Furthermore, the advent of the yuppy culture which has followed as part of its readership, is even more intriguing, described as "the new yuppies."

I've posted web versions of the 30-minute radio news programmes produced by two undergraduate teams yesterday. We'll have a full de-briefing session on Monday, but try to listen to them over the weekend to remind yourselves of your moments of glory. And infamy.

Israel have declared a ceasfire, effective from midnight tonight (GMT).

Hamas have vowed to fight until their demands are met.

 This term in Convergent Journalism you will learn the rudiments of radio news. Richard will do most of the teaching, but he has invited me to share some thoughts about the magic of radio in an introductory lecture. Sorry, but I've agreed and I'd like you all to do something in advance to help me/yourselves.

The 2008 Presidential Campaign gives Time magazine's James Poniewozik the chance to expound his theory that the 24-hour news cycle is dead. In its place, thanks to digital technology and the 'unofficial media', is the 24-minute news cycle.

"If you follow campaign news, you'll see this cycle in action several times a day, with stories sprouting, blooming and dying like flowers in time-lapse photography," he says.