Deveny for the Greens? Sacked Age Tweeter Catherine Deveny could be courting a future adviser role with the Greens, or she may just be keen to lend her celebrity to the party’s pitch to unseat Lindsay Tanner in the knife-edge federal electorate of Melbourne. Deveny was seen holding court with Bob Brown at the launch of the Greens’ new shopfront last night, in the heart of Tanner’s electorate in the Melbourne affogato haven of Brunswick Street. Deveny paused briefly to talk with Crikey about her career ambitions but was busy consulting with party membership officers, so we didn’t push it. — Andrew Crook
Mining conflict in the media. Interesting to note that former Minerals Council chief David Buckingham has out been out and about on the ABC and Business Spectator playing down mining industry concerns over the Resources Super Profits Tax. Buckingham, as it happens, is also Wayne Swan chief-of-staff Chris Barrett’s father in law. Not that Barrett would ever stoop so low as to feed Buckingham his lines …
Of course, the other side of the debate is not without its conflicts either. Australian business writer Matthew Stevens has been a virulent opponent of the RSPT since day one, running hard in recent weeks over the government’s attempt to strip the big miners of a larger proportion of their fat profits. Stevens, of course, is married to chief BHP spin doctor Sam Evans. — Andrew Crook
The Age on the cheap. Last night, as I lounged in my smoking jacket watching the 7:30 Report, a knock came at my front door. A nice young man asked me if I would perhaps be interested in receiving The Age for free! Well, not quite for free. For just the price of the Saturday and Sunday Age, I could receive the paper all week. How interesting, I thought. Unwilling to murder all those trees, I shooed him away, but I wonder what that’ll be doing for the paper’s disastrous Audit Bureau of Circulation figures. — Crikey intern Nicole Eckersley
Recession and the web won’t kill the Washington Post
“Recently released figures showing a sharp drop in Post circulation have prompted two predictable reader responses: angst and glee.” — Washington Post
Nine claims Jessica Watson homecoming footage
“Coverage of the Jessica Watson homecoming was “owned” by Channel Nine, according to its News boss, even at the expense of the rights-holder TEN / ONE. All three commercial networks were covering the event, but only TEN / ONE had blanket exclusivity access on Watson, whose journey it had sponsored from the beginning.” — TV Tonight
Breaking into the business
“Almost every week I receive an email from some poor sap wanting to know how to break into the business. I tell them: starting a career in journalism has always been a crap shoot, and becoming successful is like finding Wonka’s golden ticket. There are, however, ways to up your chances.” — The Times
From Twitter feed to TV show
“It finally happened. A Twitter feed has made the jump to television. CBS has just picked up a show based on the Twitter account Sh-t My Dad Says. Tentatively called “$#*! My Dad Says,” (cause you can’t say the S-word on network TV) the comedy stars William Shatner as the title dad and Ryan Devlin as his son.” — WebNewser
Writing headlines for the digital age
“Headlines in newspapers and magazines were once written with readers in mind, to be clever or catchy or evocative. Now headlines are just there to get the search engines to notice. In that context, “Jon Stewart Slams Glenn Beck” is the beau ideal of great headline writing.” — New York Times
Citizen journalism and the censorship debate
“Citizen journalism is the fifth estate and media censorship is an exercise in futility, experts said this week at Dubai’s 9th Arab Media Forum despite objections from traditionalists resisting the inevitable.” — Huffington Post
Haiti photojournalist claims copyright breach
“When an earthquake struck Haiti in January, the pictures taken by veteran photojournalist Daniel Morel became the iconic images of the disaster, reproduced countless times all over the world. Now those images are at the centre of an unprecedented court battle, with Morel alleging global newsagency Agence France-Presse distributed them in breach of his copyright after downloading them from the microblogging site Twitter.” — The Australian
Seven ways to use Foursquare
“Tech-savvy journalists usually go where the crowds are, and were quick to jump on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. As Foursquare climbs toward critical mass, with over one million users, 40 million checkins, and counting, it’s also becoming a hot new tool for the digital journalist.” — Mashable
Agence France-Presse must be very clever indeed to have breached the copyright in Daniel Morel’s photos by “downloading them from the microblogging site Twitter”, since Twitter doesn’t host photos. Presumably Morel had tweeted links to images that were hosted elsewhere, and AFP snarfed them from there.
Pedantic? I think not. A journal of record like The Australian should know the difference. It’s the difference between bandits stealing cash from a bank, or from the armoured van on its way to the bank.
[Last night, as I lounged in my smoking jacket watching the 7:30 Report,]
Crikey interns are obviously a special breed.
Time for FDOTM to encourage them with an image of Nicole Eckersley at work. 😉
How thoroughly depressing – Greens trying to unseat Lindsay Tanner, one of the decent (and Decent) ALP MPs, a good communicator, a real thinker, and someone who cares, and isn’t just in it for the allowances and the attention.
Boo hiss!
I’m with you Paddy. The pick of the media briefs is the image of Nicole lounging in a smoking jacket but like all “briefs” it entices without satisfying. The jacket! Is it one of those Hong Kong tailor black satin with gold double happiness roundals or more like the quilted maroon with french facing silk lapels favoured by remakes of Sherlock Holmes? Is it worn with a tasselled Circassian cap? Do you perchance smoke a meerschaum? And what are you doing at home at 7:30 when you should still be weighing out you pound of flesh for your Crikey masters?
@Jenny, yes, and they probably won’t even win, just enable the Liberal there to. Does that thought depress you even more?