Times Higher Education – Students armed with sub-editing skills are given tools for life March 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentExcellent subs are not disposable relics of a bygone era. They are the keyhole surgeons of journalism; fast, precise and adept at ensuring that prevention averts the need for expensive or embarrassing cures. At best they write attention-grabbing headlines and turn convoluted codswallop into plain, comprehensible English.
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Crucially, subbing skills should be praised and taught at each and every university that makes any claim to educate journalists.
QAA reports on public concerns about academic standards March 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentQAA lines up more work, saying it has found "evidence to support further scrutiny of […] concerns in the following areas:
– the range of contact hours appropriate to the student learning experience
– guidance offered to international students about UK higher education and the support arrangements that international students should expect from higher education institutions
– processes use to identify, train and support external examiners
– the assessment and degree classification practices used by higher education institutions
– effective ways of informing the general public about academic standards and quality in higher education and the ways they are assured."
Web 2.0 Teaching Tools: Twitter Tweets for Higher Education March 27, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentA round-up of some educational uses of Twitter, by Alan Lew:
"I actually had not considered it as a tool for education until I saw a link posted by Twittown to a blog post on that subject. Doing a little online searching (emphasis on the little), I found the following items related to Twitter and education."
Building a local news mashup with Twitter, TwitterFeed, Delicious, Yahoo! Pipes, Ruby and RSS at Adrian Short March 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentIs this the future of hyperlocal news online? At least as a DIY aggregation from some key sources/searches? A clear outline of how Adrian Short does it for the site he runs, complete with PDF diagram:
“I’m a self-confessed and unashamed news junkie and this is how I’m starting to mash up news in my local area. For those that aren’t local, Sutton is a London borough with a population of approximately 180,000. Stonecot Hill is a neighbourhood within Sutton with a population of a few thousand.”
SXSW Typography: Quit Bitchin and get Your Glyph on March 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSome great resources, links etc from this SXSW panel site — more resources and final slides promised, too.
"Designers are still complaining about the limitations of Web typography. Is their case valid, and will it be in the future? What myths are there about web typography and how do we dispel them? This panel will discuss overcoming constraints on web to create elegant, legible, and expressive typography."
Local newspapers will not recover from recession, says former Express editor | printweek.com | Business News and Jobs from the Business, Finance and Mergers and Acquisition Sector March 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSo says Richard Addis, former editor of the Daily Express, as reported in Print Week:
" He made the comment as regional newspaper groups sought government help to save further title closures and Kent media company KM Group announced plans to quit printing its own newspapers and concentrate on publishing.
Addis announced plans in 2007 to launch an "ultra-local newspaper" in London. However, he told PrintWeek that plans had changed and he is looking to launch a series of local news websites across the UK.
He said: "Print will never recover from this recession. And regional newspapers are the worst hit of all. Regional publishers are all looking at digital and how to improve their website. Over the next three years, we will see a huge failure of regional print businesses." "
Focus on your target readership March 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentFocusing on your target reader — here, morning free paper Metro:
"We used the term 'urbanite' to describe our readers – between the ages of 18 and 44, in the ABC1 bracket, white-collar workers," says Steve Auckland, managing director of Associated Newspapers' free newspapers division.
"It's a demographic which has been on the rise in the last 10 years, these young affluent workers who really like to live in the city and enjoy the city. We came up with the term first and it's been used primarily by advertising agencies and clients."
Each year Metro recruits 4,000 readers to a panel and conducts seven major surveys with them, plus mini-polls, to find out in detail about their attitudes, opinions and lifestyles.