when 2008's elections saw the ruling coalition lose key seats to the opposition, then-Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi admitted his government had underestimated the power of the internet.
So now, members of parliament from all over the country are using Twitter and Facebook to communicate with their voters.
fashion bloggers are facing a backlash for falling under the spell of the big design houses they set out to debunk.
Lace, pastels, bows-it's everything I've ever wanted, kind of like having ice cold diarrhea from drinking too much Jamba Juice!
Senior fashion insiders believe blogs have turned into little more than mouthpieces for fashion brands, which are increasingly using bloggers to regurgitate their press releases. Dolly Jones, editor of Vogue.com, said: "PRs plant stories with certain bloggers who are influential. Those have a ripple effect. It's a really powerful selling tool."
24 journalists from all over Mindanao dropped, rolled and crawled at the bursts of gunfire as they simulate situations where they are caught in hostile environment and placed their lives in danger.adding
Red Batario, Philippine coordinator for the Center for Community Journalism and Development and a member of the International News and Safety Institute said the three-day training session was in response to the requests and the growing needs of community journalists to equip themselves with the skills and tools to handle themselves in hostile situation.
Ngwe Soe Lin was arrested as he left an internet cafe in the Rangoon area of Kyaukmyaung in June 2009. After being interrogated for two months, he was sent to the city's notorious Insein prison, where his sentence was handed down on Wednesday.
Crozier will earn a basic salary just below the £800,000 paid to Michael Grade, his predecessor, but his annual bonus has the potential to be more than double that. adding
The big incentive is a parcel of shares he will be awarded on arrival. How many he will finally collect depends on the company’s performance over his first three years in the job.
Crozier will be able to pick them up only after another two years at the helm, making 2014 and 2015 the key years in the plan.
Calls for him to be stripped of the England captaincy are growing but Fabio Capello is refusing to be bounced into a quick decision on Terry’s future.
It will not be the Scot's priority when he walks on to the court at the Rod Laver Arena today, but beating Roger Federer in the final of the Australian Open would surely lay to rest the burden of being British and a loser at the highest level in his sport – the inconvenience of not being Fred Perry.
Despite widespread fears about the rise in violent crime in towns and cities, Britain’s overstretched police forces are failing to hire enough officers to bring order to streets terrorised by yobs.
Flint House could be the country retreat of a hedge-fund owner, or a plush hotel. Instead, it houses a little-known £4m-a-year rehabilitation centre for police officers suffering from physical injuries and stress. And it is looking to the taxpayer to pick up some of the bill.
Colin Gunn, an underworld godfather who ordered the execution of two grandparents, has been able to correspond freely with up to 565 “friends” on the social networking site for the past two months.
you focus on where the audience is going. They might not be there today, but the audience is going mobile first. So making it compatible with mobile. I’m amazed at the number of sites that I go to or I used to go to, that their sites look crappy on a Blackberry. They look crappy on an iPhone. So adapt for that first. Instead of expecting the phone to convert your website into a mobile version, go pure mobile.
In rushing to the courts to gag the News of the World from publishing allegations of his extra-marital affair with the ex-girlfriend of former team-mate Wayne Bridge, Terry has inadvertently gifted a victory to media organisations fighting the growing tendency of the rich and powerful to hide behind super-injunctions.
He ended an epic six-hour inquisition by the Chilcot inquiry last night by insisting he had "no regrets" over toppling Saddam Hussein, arguing that the world was more secure and that Iraq has replaced "the certainty of suppression" with "the uncertainty of democratic politics".says the Guardian
The “super-injunction” had been granted last week after Terry’s legal team used human rights laws to argue that the public had no right to know about his extramarital relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, the long-term girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, a fellow England defender.adds the paper
The parents of Joseph Seevaraj had sought medical help for their son, who had tonsillitis. Joseph was prescribed antibiotics, but when he started to vomit and had diarrhoea, Mr Seevaraj phoned for further help.
Because it was a Sunday, he could not talk to the family doctor. Instead, he was connected to the out-of-hours service and was put through to a German-trained medic
as part of our experimental Guardian Local initiative. The Local project is a small-scale community approach to local newsgathering, and will focus on the three politically engaged cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds.
Tom Allan, Hannah Waldram and John Baron have been based at the Guardian's offices in Kings Place this week to undergo training and will be starting work on their beats of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds respectively from next week. The Local blogs will be launched during the first half of this year although no dates have been confirmed.
Mehrdad Rahimi and Kouhyar Goudarzi, have been accused of wanting to wage “a war against God,” in a similar manner to the two men who were executed this morning in Tehran on charges of “Mohareb” (being enemies of God). Both contributors to an opposition website, Rahimi and Goudarzi are also facing a possible death penalty.adding that
Tehran state prosecutor Abass Jafari Dolatabadi declared on 22 January that this committee was an offshoot of the outlawed People's Mujahedeen Organisation and that any collaboration with its website was therefore banned.
The corporation did not know in advance how much it would spend covering individual events, from the Beijing Olympics to the Glastonbury festival, because so many departments were involved and they did not liaise on budgets, according to a damning National Audit Office report.
Break the “rules” and ask double-barreled questions. Example: Who are you and what are you doing? “It’s an easy way to introduce the subject and the story,”
many of the journalists at the event became in their affect and enthusiasm indistinguishable from Apple employees and business partners
had the feeling less of product announcement than of political rally. Apple has always identified itself with a certain quasi-political and religious fervor and linked itself to a dedicated base of supporters. It has also always commanded—and demanded—a level of loyalty well beyond that associated with most consumer products. But even for Apple, yesterday seemed extreme.
Romanian journalists had heard a rumour about workers in being lured from outside the EU to the Czech Republic where they work under slave like conditions. The story is researched and published now – but the journalists could not have done it without support from Journalismfund.eu.
the best feature is iBooks, the e-book reading software that knocks Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader into a cocked hat.says the Telegraph
Novels are beautifully presented, lined up on a virtual bookshelf, complete with sleeve art.
The pages of the books resemble proper printed pages, with a sense of texture and authenticity to them. Turning pages is achieved with a swiping gesture, or a single tap in the right-hand margins.
The iPad would help "attract millions of new readers to the world's best books", said John Makinson, chairman of the Penguin Group.
publishers have agreed to a business model that gives them more power over the price that customers pay for e-books.
PCs will be around as expert devices for the long haul, but it's clear that Apple, coasting on the deserved success of the iPhone, sees simple, closed internet devices as the future of computing. (Or at the very least, portable computing.) And for the average consumer, it could be.reports Gizmodo
It's certainly no savior for newspapers. What are you going to do, kill your website and sell your "publication" in the App Store? Nonsense. The iPad doesn't change the economic equation. You aren't prevented from selling your content by lack of technology and tools; you're prevented by a lack of market demand. And the demand isn't there because people have, at their fingertips, far more alternatives than the human brain can process -
video is going to play a huge part in the future of journalism; it is more popular than blogging and social networking;
you don’t need a £20,000 camera to achieve broadcastable results. In fact, you can make high quality, high definition video for as little as £100. It’s not the kit, but how you use it
Up until yesterday, no reputable newspaper has truly articulated the reasons for staying free, nor dedicated itself to this model. Vowing to stay free, the Guardian becomes something of a spoiler. It is not outlandish to assume that the New York Times will lose as much as 90% of its traffic, with the Guardian scooping up a tidy piece of that. The Times no longer sees itself in a position to proselytize for its brand and its left-liberal authority; the Guardian, an inveterate proselytizer, may suddenly have the field to itself.
He did not insult Rusbridger, as he does most of his competitors, but he didn’t quite regard him as someone he might ever want to be alone with either: “Kooky,” was his description. “And what’s with the way his hair falls in his face?” Murdoch asked once, scowling in his dark way, about Rusbridger’s bangs and mop-top. “How old is he? He looks like a kid.”
How do you play? First, hit “Turn Paywall On!” From there, “Views before paywall” is the most fun slider, and the number that many paywall discussions focus on. This sets the number of free pageviews (not the same as stories) that are allowed for each reader before requiring them to subscribe. As the number of free views decreases, the net revenue jumps as each audience segment hits the paywall, then falls from lost ad impressions. Somewhere, there’s a sweet spot.
We just don’t know how readers and advertisers will react.
After lunch: Kate Hoey on Number 87 bus wearing furry coat. Got off at Whitehall. Fur didn't look real.
The report also analysed media, journalists and influencers. While established media, like The Economist, The Guardian, Sky News and the Financial Times top the list for most followers, journalists (Channel 4’s @krishgm), bloggers (@timmontgomerie and @iaindale) and activists (@bevaniteellie) receive more mentions and retweets - they and, not the Sun, are more likely to win it on Twitter.
Monitoring of state TV stations Rupavahini and ITN by Reporters Without Borders shows they have been abused by the president and his aides to a rarely-seen degree to promote his campaign.
More than 96.7 per cent of the 1,539 minutes (about 25 hours) of news programmes monitored on these two stations was given over to the activities of the incumbent and his followers. Less than 3.3 per cent was accorded to the opposition, including Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the leading opposition candidate. The two stations were monitored for the seven days ending 24 January.
The challenge for web editors is to determine exactly which ‘local’ community they will target and what motivates the community. By understanding exactly what matters to their audience, websites can provide users with relevant and interesting content that will create appeal. If this appeal is strong enough, users will pay to access it – just as FT and WSJ subscribers do - irrelevant of the existence of non-pay wall sites.
Guardian/ICM poll published today shows a third of voters see the Tories as the party of the upper classes.
Britain's 18-month recession is expected to be declared officially over tomorrow. But cabinet members privately fear a disastrous rebound with the economy shrinking in the first quarter of this year – figures that would be published 11 days before a May 6 polling day.
The crash happened at 12.30am, five minutes after the Boeing 737 had taken off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.
Witnesses described seeing a 'ball of fire that lit up the whole sea'.
The BBC is considering the sale of its magazine division, which produces 50 titles, after being ordered to curb its money-making activities.
In an event of this magnitude, “you cover it first and worry about the money second,” said Paul Friedman, an executive vice president for CBS News.
CBS was “drawing down people as fast as we can, because the story is not as central as it was, and because we’ve got to start worrying about all the money we’re spending.”
Would he join in one of the many suppers in his name – perhaps taking on the role of toaster to the lassies? Would he eschew the pomp and formality for something a bit more intimate with one particular lassie (or more)? Or would he have checked in to a rehab facility to be treated for sex addiction in a bid to save his marriage? Was Burns an 18th century Tiger Woods?
Jade Braithwaite used a Blackberry mobile phone to set up his page on the Facebook social networking site from behind bars at the Aylesbury Young Offenders Institute in Buckinghamshire.
Now, you’re always told to look happy and make eye contact in social situations, but at least for your online dating photo, that’s just not optimal advice. For women, a smile isn’t strictly better: she actually gets the most messages by flirting directly into the camera [... However,] flirting away from the camera is the single worst attitude a woman can take. Certain social etiquettes apply even online: if you’re going to be making eyes at someone, it should be with the person looking at your picture.
Men’s photos are most effective when they look away from the camera and don’t smile:
Even for those who did not live there, the living conditions are desperate....Boy, this has been something it will take me long to shake out of my system. It is in my pores. I smell of it. I cannot share my sleeping space with my boots or my socks. There is not enough water to wash anything.
I have no idea why the post mortem should not be published for 70 years, and the Mail on Sunday does not seem to have tried very hard to find out. It could conceivably be a news story only if there were any credible reason for thinking that Kelly was murdered. Which there is not.
The women, who may have a "non Arab" appearance and be travelling on Western passports, have been prepared for their missions by the Yemeni group responsible for the operation to blow up an airliner over the United States on Christmas Day.
there was confusion and infighting between officials and ministers over the legality of deposing Saddam Hussein without United Nations support.and
he backed the decision by the Lord Chief Justice to reduce Hussain's sentence to a suspended term and added: "The law should lean as far as possible on the side of the householder."
Five journalists plan to lock themselves away in a French farmhouse with access only to Facebook and Twitter to test the quality of news from the social networking and micro-blogging sites.reports the Independent
89 per cent of respondents said they turn to blogs, 65 per cent to social networks and 55 per cent to microblogging sites as part of their research.
Seventy two per cent of newspaper and online journalists use social networking sites for significant online research, in comparison with 58 per cent of those at magazines, while online-only journalists make the most use of Twitter
it's also clear that while social media is supplementing the research done by journalists, it is not replacing editors' and reporters' reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism,"
converted millions to the idea of paying to download songs and, to a degree, has revived the music industry, becoming the world's largest music retailer in the process.
Apple needs the publishers – and their journalism – as much as they need it. Taiwanese company Micro-Star launched a tablet two years ago which failed partly because it carried insufficient access to content. Jobs and his team are in talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the New York Times Co. and magazine publishers such as Conde Nast and television networks including CBS and Disney.
The drug addict mother and violent alcoholic father who allowed the brothers to smoke cannabis and cigarettes and drink vodka from the age of nine, could follow their sons into the dock.
"Never let them out. Next time they will kill. I am certain of that. I don't think it will ever be safe to release them. I am convinced they will do it again. They loved what they did. You could see it on their faces in court. They were smiling. They are bloodthirsty."
The brothers were given an indeterminate sentence and must be detained for a minimum of five years for the prolonged sadistic attack in Edlington, near Doncaster, last April. They are considered to pose such a high risk to the public that they may never be released. One is thought to be in danger of becoming a psychopath.says the Times
The head of the company, which has made tens of millions of pounds from the sale of the detectors, has now been arrested and the British Government has announced a ban on their export to Iraq and Afghanistan.
says the Mail
YaVaughnie Wilkins is said to have paid £150,000 to reveal her relationship with Charles Phillips to the world after he went back to his wife.
Please get your facts right.
They were not sentenced to "just FIVE years". They were given indeterminate sentences which means they can be incarcerated for their whole lives if necessary.
Yeah, but let's not let facts get in the way of an opportunity to have a good old rant about 'Broken Britain' and how our justice system is a 'joke' and we need the BNP to sort it out. You know Mail readers love all that stuff.
Everyone has that moment when they have a brilliant idea but, because they didn't write it down, cannot recall it later. Don't let this happen to you again by keeping a notepad with you at all times.
In any other industry, charging customers would not be a radical idea.
believing that any gains from subscriptions will be outweighed by losses in advertising and brand equity.adding that
The point that link economy enthusiasts miss, I think, is that the trade-off between subscription and advertising is not a zero-sum game. Rates for online display ads have been falling steadily as competition has proliferated, with most sites now finding it hard to get more than $4 per 1,000 impressions on their pages (or $14m for the 3.5bn hits on all US newspaper sites monthly).
There was a risk that some areas would seem like “ghettoes” compared to others, although this was not necessarily a bad thing as it would create pressure on politicians to spend money on improving the worse-off areas.
Scientists say that rickets is becoming “disturbingly common” among British children. The disease is caused by chronic vitamin D deficiencies, which can be triggered by long periods out of natural sunlight and a poor diet.and the
many hours children spend indoors playing computer games or watching television may be to blame for a resurgence of rickets.
The proposals, regarded as the biggest regulatory crackdown on banks since the 1930s, would limit the size of institutions and bar them from the most cavalier trading practices. Mr Obama hopes that the move will reset his flagging presidency.
The cash is its employees' cut of $45bn (£27.7bn) in revenues that the company enjoyed in 2009, a year after the financial system was bailed out by governments around the world and pump-primed with cheap money from central banks.
The attackers, aged 11 and ten, stopped battering, strangling and violating their victims with an array of weapons only because their arms were 'aching'.
sync to local campaign events using GPS and postcode data, have a mobile version of their Virtual Phone Bank enabling a user to phone target voters plus have linkage into Facebook and Twitter.
this assumption that there is a security threat has gone completely unchallenged by an army of foreign press, equally unfamiliar with Haiti and the character of the Haitians. Indeed, TV reporters particularly, having exhausted the televisual possibilities of rubble, have been talking up "security", "unrest" and "violence" when all available evidence would indicate anything but.
has been working himself up all week into what is now a state of near hysteria about "security" and the almost non-existent "violence".adding that
Over the weekend we saw him anticipating an outbreak of unrest, standing before a crowd of thousands of hungry, humiliated Haitians as they waited, patiently and quietly, to be given rations by UN soldiers.
