links for 2007-02-17

Citizen photojournalism agency Scoopt turned down the scoop of a lifetime when it declined to act as a sales agent for a private video of the Royal Family at home because of the legal risks involved.</p>

Paul Bradshaw asked his students to blog why they should learn online journalism skills. Some good stuff, but he should make them sign their names to their blogs so they learn to write in a way they would be happy to be held to account for.

The Economist looks at one of the places where all that global newspaper growth touted by WAN recently is actually happening…

A great interactive feature from BBC News Online allows users to chose the mix of electricity generatng options in the UK and calculates the impact on carbon emissions.

Doe the subs at the “Telegraph” always put “technical” words in “quotation marks”? Not worry, there’s nothing new about the ACAP project here – just annoyed enough to post this.

“If you needed any more proof that this isn’t your father’s newspaper anymore, consider this thread that’s getting active discussion over at the newspaper video group on Yahoo — how to dress a studio set.”

German norg Die Welt is relaunching its web site, and has invited media bloggers a preview (but sadly not any German media bloggers working in Britain).

“If you want to get and keep a job in journalism today, keep this in mind: The words “not my job” should never leave your mouth. If you find yourself saying that audio (or video, or online, or multimedia) isn’t your job, time to stop and think.”

Reuters Second LIfe correspondent Adam Pasick: “A typical day is not that different from my job before I was reporting on Second Life. I’m doing the things that reporters are doing in the real world.”

Mark Potts: “The heresy of paid content is a mystery to me. Why would publishers give something away online that they charge for in print? Why leave money on the table?”

Andrew Grant-Adamson on Gillmor’s We the Media: “I sometimes wish some of the evangelical zealots of “citizen journalism” would read the book.”

Kevin Anderson looks at the coverage of the Sun’s friendly fire video story. The ‘herd’ of journalists added little value to the story, but one podcasting former A-10 pilot did. Make sure you read the last paragraph, which sums up perfectly.

“Journalists writing about Zimbabwe’s repressive government have found a new way to circumvent their censors: sending text messages via cell phone.”

Today’s essential reading: Contrary to the prevailing analysis, Seamus McCauley says the Belgian newspaper’s victory over Google makes sense, to a point. His reality check about the source of value in newspaper economics is particularly useful.