When you think of Somalia, what comes to mind?Conflict? Pirates? Refugees? Poverty?Somalia is still a dangerous place for journalists to operate: according to the Committee to Protect Journalists five journalists have been killed there this year. But improvements in the security situation are......more
Daniel Bennett - Reporting War
Twitter and the ethics of covering the Breivik trial
There is a dilemma for journalists covering the trial of Anders Behring Breivik — the man who has admitted killing 77 people on 22 July in Norway last summer.On the one hand, Breivik is gaining another bout of publicity for......more
An ocean of data and the future of social media analysis
Data is the future, if it's not already the present. At a recent press conference announcing US military investment in 'Big Data' projects, the acting director for DARPA noted that the Atlantic Ocean contains 100 billion, billion gallons of......more
"Brief and largely transatlantic": Visualising #Kony2012 on Twitter
Yesterday at the Frontline Club, there was a discussion about Invisible Children's controversial Kony2012 video.Whatever else you think about it (and a lot of people have a lot of thoughts), the campaign has succeeded in raising awareness of the crimes......more
Taliban take questions using online forum
Reuters is reporting that the Taliban have started answering queries submitted to an online forum on their website.Questions have been asked on topics ranging from the Taliban's negotiations with the United States to their position on educating girls.The Taliban banned......more
POLIS 2012: Reporting Revolution
I'm at the POLIS Journalism Conference where we have been talking about Reporting Revolution with the BBC's Lyse Doucet, Lindsey Hilsum from Channel 4 and Tom Coghlan at The Times. "An extraordinary time to be a journalist"All the panellists expressed their......more
Behind the scenes: social media at the Israel Defence Forces
This is an extended news report on the Israel Defence Forces' social media activities including interviews with the soldiers updating the various IDFSpokesperson accounts.The video is a year old, but I've been looking for this sort of material for a while. The......more
Just for YOU: NATO launches WE-NATO social media platform
NATO has launched a new interactive social media platform called WE-NATO. It's primarily a Wordpress blog which will attempt to encourage an "eye level conversation with netizens out there in the web".WE-NATO also wants to livestream a series of talks......more
Tributes to Marie Colvin, Sunday Times correspondent killed in Syria
The Sunday Times correspondent, Marie Colvin, was killed in Syria on Wednesday morning. She died after a makeshift media centre in Homs came under attack from Syrian forces. French photographer Rémi Ochlik was also killed.Colvin and Ochlik died the day......more
"Welcome to Syria": Embedding with 'citizen journalists'
This Al Jazeera English report on Syria's citizen journalists is interesting. When people in the media industry talk about "embedded journalists" they usually mean journalists embedding with military units. It is, of course, possible to 'embed' with other people or organisations......more
